Dementia in low- and middle-income countries

Abstract

The article focuses on the need for research and advocacy of dementia patients residing in low and middle income countries. The estimated prevalence of dementia in Africa in 2005 reached almost half a million and is expected to increase along with the socio-economic impact of the disease in the succeeding two decades. It raises concern over the concentration of the South African public healthcare system on primary healthcare needs such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It notes that the elderly with dementia tend have no children to care for them.