UK’s dementia hotspots mapped: One in 35 people have incurable disease in parts of country and experts warn rate will double by 2050 amid demands to get game-changing Alzheimer’s drugs rushed onto NHS
Up to one in 35 people in parts of England are believed to have dementia, according to data put into an interactive map by MailOnline.
Charities estimate that about 950,000 people nationwide suffer from the memory disorder. Still, experts believe the number will rise to an estimated 2 million by 2050 as Britons live longer.
It comes as scientists have urged officials to hurry in approving groundbreaking new drugs for Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia.
Dementia prevalence rates vary wildly across England, with the cruel, incurable disease most prevalent among the over-80s. Up to one in six people this age will be knocked down.
As a result, dementia hotspots in England tend to be in seaside towns in Dorset, Hampshire, Norfolk, Essex and Sussex.
The graph shows how the number of people diagnosed in the UK has increased from around 340,000 in 2011 to almost 550,000 in 2019 (graph). Alzheimer’s Research UK estimates that only 63.1 per cent of people in England have been diagnosed with dementia (bottom left). Forecasts suggest 2 million people in the UK will have dementia by 2050 (bottom right)
Figures from Alzheimer’s Research UK show that 2.81 per cent of people in Christchurch, Dorset, are living with the disease.
New Forest West (2.65 per cent), North Norfolk (2.44 per cent) and Clacton (2.43 per cent) are also among the hardest hit.
Alzheimer’s Research UK calculated the prevalence of the disease using population estimate data from the Office for National Statistics for 2020.
It applied the risk of developing dementia among people over 65, which is 7.14 percent, to the number of people in all 650 constituencies in that age group.
The results showed that rates were high in Worthing West, where 2.42 percent of the local population is believed to be living with the disease.
Meanwhile, Poplar and Limehouse (0.38 per cent) and West Ham (0.48 per cent) in London had the lowest dementia rates in England, along with Manchester Central (0.5 per cent).
The variation between areas is due to different demographics. Age is the greatest risk factor for dementia.
In Christchurch, where dementia is the highest, a third of residents are over 65 years old.
By comparison, the figure is only 6.2 percent Poplar and Limehouse.
The number of people suffering from the memory-robbing condition — which can also cause problems with thinking, problem solving and language — is increasing as people are living longer.
Experts believe that more than 1 million people in the UK will have dementia by 2025, and more than 2 million by 2050.
There is a range of different diseases that cause dementia, many of which are related to an abnormal buildup of proteins in the brain called amyloid and tau.
In addition to age, a person’s risk of developing dementia can be increased by their gender, ethnicity, underlying health conditions, lifestyle factors, and exposure to pollution.
About four in ten cases of dementia are caused by preventable factors, such as smoking, alcohol consumption and overweight and inactivity.
The Alzheimer’s Society charity estimated that dementia costs the UK £26.3 billion a year, which is more than cancer, heart disease and stroke.
Trials are underway with brake tether, also made by Eli Lilly. However, the full results will not be available until 2025. But early data suggests remternetug — given by injection, not IV drip — will outperform donanemab. About 75 percent of patients who took remternetug for six months had amyloid plaques removed from their brains, Eli Lilly announced at a medical conference in Sweden in March.
From 1906, when clinical psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer first reported a ‘serious disease of the cerebral cortex’, to the discovery of the mechanisms of the disease in the 1980s and 1990s, to the current ‘breakthrough’ drug lecanemab, scientists have spent more than a century struggling with the cruel disease that robs people of their cognition and independence
David Thomas, head of policy at Alzheimer’s Research UK, told MailOnline: ‘Dementia is having a devastating impact on hundreds of thousands of people in the UK today, as these figures show.
“If nothing changes, one in two of us will be directly affected by dementia, either by caring for a loved one with the condition, developing it ourselves, or both.
“This is the reality we face. The care crisis caused by dementia will continue to grow unless we act now. We need to find ways to stop dementia.’
It comes because groundbreaking research results published this week showed that a new drug called donanemab slowed the decline of Alzheimer’s disease by up to 60 percent.
Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, owner of the drug, announced that it had already applied for approval in the US. It expects to apply for the same green light in the UK within six months.
Some scientists have already called for “quick regulatory decisions” for the “potentially life-changing” Alzheimer’s drug so patients can benefit.
Eli Lilly, owner of the drug, said it will be submitted to the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for approval.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) would then have to consider the cost-effectiveness of the medication before it can be rolled out on the NHS. This process can take several years.
Thomas said: ‘The promising news this week about the Alzheimer’s drug donanemab has proven what we’ve known all along, which is that research will deliver the breakthroughs that people with dementia so desperately need.
“Now we need to take advantage of these discoveries and invest more to further develop these drugs and bring us closer to a cure for dementia.”
Donanemab is given once a month to Alzheimer’s patients through an IV.
The monoclonal antibody – a man-made version of proteins produced by the body to fight harmful substances – travels to the brain.
Once in the organ, donanemab binds to toxic accumulations of amyloid plaque – a hallmark sign of the memory-robbing disease. This prompts immune cells known as microglia to clear them.
While scientists have hailed the ‘fantastic news’ of Alzheimer’s treatment, others have warned that Britain is not ready to hand out the resource-intensive drugs.
Serious concerns have also been raised about side effects, which are designed to remove a toxic protein that builds up in the brain and is thought to paralyze it from the inside out.
In addition, some have warned they could be too expensive to gain approval, with price tags of around £20,000/year floating around the US.
Experts also suggested that the latest research results show that the effects of donanemab may not even be noticeable to patients or their families.