The Trillion Dollar Disease

Dementia is now a trillion-dollar disease, and with the numbers of people living with the condition doubling every 20 years, the burden will fall unevenly on developing countries where the growth rate is fastest.

We travel to South Korea, the fastest ageing country in the world, where the country’s president has declared the challenge of Alzheimer’s to be a national crisis. We meet families struggling to look after loved ones with Alzheimer’s and question whether countries in both the developed and developing world can afford to provide care for patients. We also visit the Netherlands, where an innovative approach to Alzheimer’s care offers hope for the future.

Presenter: Andrew Bomford
Producer: Estelle Doyle

(Photo: Memory Loss, Credit: Getty Images)