Alzheimer's numbers 'to quadruple'

clipped from www.channel4.com Last Modified: 10 Jun 2007 The number of people worldwide living with Alzheimer's disease will quadruple by 2050, experts have said. Almost half of them (43%) will need high-level care as the "global epidemic" takes hold, they said. The estimated 26 million people worldwide currently living with the condition will grow to more than 106 million by 2050, US researchers predicted. In the UK, around 1.7 million people will be living with the condition by that date, the Alzheimer's Society has said. There are currently 700,000 people with dementia in the UK and 60,000 people die from it every year. The US research, which blames an increasingly ageing population, was presented at the International Conference on the Prevention of Dementia being held in Washington DC.