By Martin Banks - 3rd March 2009
It would certainly help if more what you might call high-profile' people would 'come out' and say they have Alzheimer's disease
Jean Georges
Well-known public figures suffering from Alzheimer's disease have been urged to 'come out' and declare their condition.
Speaking at an event in Brussels on Tuesday, Jean Georges, the executive director of Alzheimer Europe said, "It would certainly help if more what you might call 'high-profile' people would 'come out' and say they have Alzheimer's disease.
Public declarations would "greatly" help raise awareness of the disease, he added.
"There is still a stigma attached to the disease which deters some sufferers from coming forward because they feel some sort of shame for themselves and their carers.
"If more people like [Margaret] Thatcher and [Iris] Murdoch publicly declared they have Alzheimer's it would help eliminate the stigma."
His comments were echoed by Florence Lustman, coordinator of the French Alzheimer's Plan, who said publicly well-known sufferers were more likely to come from Anglo-Saxon countries rather than, for example, France and mainland Europe.
"Unfortunately, it is much more difficult to get other such people to come forward. This shows that we are still very far from our goals, one of which is to have a real debate on the disease," she said.
She said the decision by one 'high-profile' person, French president Nicolas Sarkozy, to make tackling Alzheimer's a priority during his country's presidency of the EU in the second half of last year had helped generate interest in the issue.
The French have committed some €400m alone to further research and medical care on Alzheimer's.
Meanwhile, Alzheimer's Europe has revealed that a majority of MEPs have endorsed a written parliamentary declaration calling on member states and the commission to recognise the disease as a European public health priority and to develop an EU-wide action plan.
A total of 465 deputies – 59.2 per cent of parliament - signed the declaration, which was put forward by five MEPs.
This is significant, said Georges, because it means the declaration now moves a step closer to becoming formal EU policy.
Antoni Montserrat, a policy adviser for rare diseases in the commission's health DG, pointed out that the EU had limited competence on health issues.
He said that, so far, the EU had action plans in place only for cancer and rare diseases although he expects this would soon include Alzheimer's.
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