Kerala - Kozhikode   

Alzheimer's Day to be observed tomorrow

Staff Reporter

Efforts on to create awareness among people on the disease

KOZHIKODE: Several people, especially the elderly, have difficulty in carrying out even daily activities, forget what they did five minutes ago or have the inability or deteriorating ability to recognise people, time or place. These are some of the symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease, which now approximately affects four million Indians.

The World Alzheimer's Day falls on Thursday. It was in 1906 that Alois Alzheimer explained the disease that was later named after him. "Even after 100 years, no one has come up with an effective medicine to cure this disease. Today, medicines can only help the condition of the patient not to worsen. A total recovery is not possible. This is where early detection plays an important role. For this awareness was important," says K.A.R. Nair, joint secretary, Calicut Chapter of Alzheimer's and Related Disorders Society of India (ARDSI).

"Thanmatra," a film by Blessy, helped a lot in creating awareness on the disease in Kerala, Mr. Nair feels. "Blessy had visited one of the ARDSI Centre and had talks with K. Jacob Roy. He also observed some of the people affected by the disease," he recalls.

Mr. Nair says that there were three stages of disease, mild, moderate and severe. It is at the third stage where one becomes unaware of oneself and are not able to manage things on their own and need others' help.

Gradually their resistance power decreases and they succumb to other complication such as pneumonia, he says. It would take a minimum of eight to 10 years for a person to graduate from mild stage to a severe stage.

Though the disease normally affects persons who are 65 years and above, there are numerous instances where comparatively younger people are affected by the disease.

"We have a case of 58-year-old woman at our centre at Payyanakkal now. We earlier came across a case of 50-year-old person. Also, I happened to meet a doctor from Karnataka, whose husband was affected by this disease and he was only 43 years old," Mr. Nair says.

The Alzheimers Day Care Centre at Payyanakkal, near here, caters to 100 to 125 persons every day. The ARDSI Calicut chapter works as a wing of Association for Welfare of the Handicapped.

The Dementia Respite Care Centre opened at Kottapadi, near Kunnamkulam in Thrissur district, in September 2005 was the first such centre in the country, Mr. Nair says.

The centre has facilities to accommodate 10 clients for respite care and 10 for day care. The services provided include round-the-clock nursing care, medical care, occupational and physiotherapy, group activities, information and counselling, yoga and other recreational activities.

ARDSI, which was set up in 1992, has 14 chapters - in New Delhi, Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Kochi, Thrissur, Kozhikode, Mumbai Kolkata, Goa, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai.

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