Developing a national Alzheimer’s strategy equal to the epidemic

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is battering the United States s it destroys the lives of more than five million Americans nd overturns the lives of their loved ones. These Americans uffer from its devastating impact without the prospect of eprieve or remission, and the toll will increase rapidly in he years ahead. And yet, for all this, the United States federal governent has no core strategy to guide its response to this crisis. he Office of Alzheimer’s Research at the National Instiutes of Health, established in 1986 to coordinate the govrnment’s AD efforts, was abolished in 1995. For the past 2 years, no senior government official has been charged ith leading the government’s battle against the disease. Consequently, it should come as no surprise that the ederal government’s efforts toward dealing with AD are arked by wavering commitment, a misallocation of reources, and little collaboration among federal agencies. In hort, we find precisely the passivity and bureaucratic drift ne would expect, given the absence of a clearly articulated nd vigorously implemented strategy. The human scale of AD’s impact makes the absence of a uiding National Alzheimer’s Strategy disturbing. The ounting fiscal impact of this disease makes the governent’s passivity astonishing. Alzheimer’s disease is already the country’s third most xpensive condition, and because of the average age at nset, the obligation to pay for this burden rests to a large egree with the federal government. Alzheimer’s disease