Alzheimer’s treatment is on verge of breakthrough

Aug 8 2008 by Roseanna Cunningham, MSP

SO, which do you want first? The good news or the bad news? Over the last week there have been two huge announcements with the potential to affect millions of people and in both cases will certainly affect many, many people in Perthshire.

To allow me to end the column on a positive note let me turn to the bad news first – the massive hike in gas prices announced by British Gas with a threat of more to come next year.

As I understand it, Centrica, the umbrella company of which British Gas is a subsidiary, has nevertheless been making massive profits. Massive profits invariably mean big fat bonuses to bosses not to mention welcome dividends to shareholders.

The bosses and shareholders should be so lucky. They can use their dividends and bonuses to pay their thumping great gas bills. Quite what the rest of the population are expected to do is anyone’s guess. Given our climate, properly heated homes aren’t exactly a luxury, though I suppose it’s not so long ago that most people didn’t have central heating as such. When I came back from Australia, I lived in a flat where we had to make sure we put the milk back into the fridge in the evening because otherwise it froze solid on the kitchen table. And no, I haven’t made that up. We did however have those old-fashioned gas fires in every room – you know, the ones with the ceramic backing that you lit with a match? How many houses now have fires of any description in every room?

There’s no escaping the serious implications for vulnerable people come the winter. Government simply cannot sit back and allow this to happen without some intervention. A windfall tax seems the least they can do – but only if every penny of it is spent back on those who are most vulnerable. They might also put their strategic hats on and sort out the nonsense of a country that is a gas exporter being in this position in the first place.

The other more positive announcement is also going to take a bit of long-term thinking. If news reports are accurate and if we haven’t been subjected to a massive dose of hype, then we may just be on the verge of an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. I’m not sure how many people in Perthshire have been diagnosed with this awful illness or how many families are affected. If the early results are verified it will still be a few years before medicines are being manufactured. However, this is the first bit of good news in a long while in the fight against the dementia scourge.

I’m well aware that Alzheimer’s isn’t the only cause of dementia and this announcement won’t lead to a fix for all potential dementia sufferers. But, what a massive step forward if we can slow down or halt the progress of that disease? Here’s hoping that those who hold the NHS purse strings realise the enormous benefits to be achieved if that turns out to be the case.