WASHINGTON, July 17 (Reuters) - President Clinton said on Sunday the
National Institutes of Health will spend $50 million over five years to
accelerate research on Alzheimer's, a degenerative brain disease afflicting more
than four million Americans.
The research on ways to prevent and treat the illness, which primarily
strikes seniors, will focus on developing a vaccine, Clinton said.
The move follows last week's announcements at an Alzheimer's conference in
Washington of advances in vaccine development and early diagnosis of the
disease, the leading cause of dementia in the elderly.
"This research, which builds on the encouraging findings reported this week
at the World Alzheimer's Congress 2000, provides new hope not only for Americans
who are at risk for developing Alzheimer's disease in the future, but for those
who are already in its early stages," Clinton said in a statement.
The Alzheimer's Association welcomed the new funds, but called on Congress
also to increase appropriations by $100 million for fiscal year 2001.
It said Alzheimer's would strike 14 million middle-aged members of the
post-World War II "baby boomer" generation unless treatments and new ways to
prevent the illness were found in the next five years.
Clinton said the number of Americans with Alzheimer's was expected to more
than triple by 2050. Currently, one in 10 people over the age of 65, and as many
as 50% of those over the age of 85, have Alzheimer's disease.
