Obama administration announces plan to fight Alzheimer’s

{mosads}The plan stems from the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA), which President Obama signed in 2011.

It also includes a public awareness campaign to “help families and caregivers” of Alzheimer’s patients “find the services and support they need” and launches a new website, Alzheimers.gov.

Several lawmakers praised the announcement.

“Alzheimer’s disease takes a tremendous personal and economic toll on both the individual and the family,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a NAPA co-author.

“This national plan, with a goal of preventing and effectively treating Alzheimer’s by 2025, demonstrates an important commitment to a national effort to fight this horrible disease,” she added.

Collins also co-chairs a congressional task force on the disease.

Materials from her office noted that Alzheimer’s costs $183 billion in healthcare ever year and that “this figure will only increase exponentially as the baby boom generation ages.”

“If nothing is done to slow or stop the disease, Alzheimer’s will cost the United States $20 trillion over the next 40 years,” a release stated.

The chairman of USAgainstAlzheimer’s, a national advocacy group, also praised the announcement, calling it “unprecedented” and asking Congress to increase funding for research on the disease.

“This is not a plan to be lauded and tossed aside, but a roadmap to address what is now an international crisis.  The way we execute this plan will determine the course of our nation for decades to come,” said George Vradenburg.

Initiatives announced Tuesday included the first prevention trial for people at the highest risk for Alzheimer’s and another to test a specific treatment for the disease — an insulin nasal spray.