World Will Soon Face Pandemic of Parkinson’s Disease, Experts Warn

The number of people with Parkinson’s disease will soon grow to pandemic proportions, according to a commentary paper published in journal JAMA Neurology.

Parkinson’s disease. Image credit: Blausen Gallery 2014 / Wikiversity Journal of Medicine, doi: 10.15347/wjm/2014.010.

Parkinson’s disease. Image credit: Blausen Gallery 2014 / Wikiversity Journal of Medicine, doi: 10.15347/wjm/2014.010.

“Pandemics are usually equated with infectious diseases like Zika, influenza, and HIV. But neurological disorders are now the leading cause of disability in the world and the fastest growing is Parkinson’s disease,” said Dr. Ray Dorsey, a neurologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Dr. Dorsey and colleagues point out that between 1990 and 2015, the prevalence of Parkinson’s more than doubled and it is estimated that 6.9 million people across the globe have the disease.

By 2040, they believe that number of people with Parkinson’s will grow to 14.2 million as the population ages and the rate of growth will outpace Alzheimer’s.

These estimates are likely conservative due underreporting, misdiagnosis, and increasing life expectancy.

To combat this growing pandemic, the researchers argue that the medical community should pursue the same strategies that, in 15 years, transformed HIV from an unknown and fatal illness into a highly treatable chronic condition.

“People with HIV infection simply demanded better treatments and successfully rallied for both awareness and new treatments, literally chaining themselves to the doors of pharmaceutical companies,” said Dr. Bastiaan Bloem, of the Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

“Today, HIV has become a treatable, chronic disease. This upcoming increase in the number of Parkinson patients is striking and frankly worrisome. We feel it is urgent that people with Parkinson’s go to the pharmaceutical industry and policymakers alike, demanding immediate action to fight this enormous threat.”

The scientists contend that the Parkinson’s community must come together and focus its activism in support of:

(i) developing a better understand the environmental, genetic, and behavioral causes and risk factors for Parkinson’s to help prevent its onset;

(ii) increasing access to care — an estimated 40% of people with the disease in both the U.S. and Europe do not see a neurologist and the number is far greater in developing nations;

(iii) advocating for increases in research funding for the disease;

(iv) and lowering the cost of treatments — many patients in low-income countries do not have access to drugs that are both lifesaving and improve quality of life.

“For too long the Parkinson’s community has been too quiet on these issues,” Dr. Dorsey said.

“Building on the AIDS community’s motto of ‘silence=death,’ the Parkinson’s community should make their voices heard.”

“The current and future burden of this debilitating disease depends upon their action.”

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E. Ray Dorsey Bastiaan R. Bloem. The Parkinson Pandemic — A Call to Action. JAMA Neurol, published online November 13, 2017; doi: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2017.3299

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