According to the official figures, every day 125 women are dying due to dementia and caused more female deaths last year than Covid-19.
In England and Wales last year, Covid-19 was the leading cause of death, with 73,766 fatalities recorded with an underlying cause of coronavirus, according to the ONS. This accounted for 12.1 per cent of all deaths.
But the death toll from dementia and Alzheimer’s was only marginally lower than for Covid-19. Dementia and Alzheimer’s caused 70,047 deaths — 11.5 per cent of the total. Dementia killed 45,922 women in 12 months, and was the cause of 15.3 per cent of all female deaths, taking the lives of five women per hour.
A global effort to beat dementia similar to the drive to tackle coronavirus was ‘vital’, said David Thomas, head of policy at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said.
A study into dementia, which afflicts 850,000 in the UK, have been postponed or paused due to pandemic. One in three people born in the UK today will develop the condition.
There is no treatment for dementia but the US regulators gave provisional approval for the use of aducanumab, which targets proteins in the brain. The UK and Europe are set to give rulings in the autumn.
Thomas added aducanumab might be a “tipping point” to fight against the disease.
