Include dementia in G20 meeting agenda, NGO appeals to govt

Given that India has assumed presidency of this year's G20 meeting, to be held in September, it should include dementia in the meeting agenda, Bengaluru-based NGO Nightingales Medical Trust said.

In an appeal addressed to the central government, the NGO's managing trustee, Dr Radha S Murthy, said that 8.8 million senior citizens in India are estimated to have dementia, according to a recent study by AIIMS-Delhi and University of Southern California.

The numbers are expected to reach 17 million by 2036. The disease has huge impacts on patients' families, as well as on the healthcare system, costs and mortality rates.

Former Union health minister J P Nadda had shared his commitment to tackle dementia in the third G20 health ministers' meeting held in Japan in 2019. The government should develop a national dementia plan, the appeal said.