In the fears of the French, it comes after cancer. 20% of people questioned by Ipsos for the daily The cross and the Alzheimer Foundation fear Alzheimer’s disease against 38% cancer.
A fear tinged with fatality. Two out of three respondents expect to be struck by this disease one day. “The French have understood that with the aging of the population, this disease will take on an increasing role in the years to come”, explains Dr Olivier de Ladoucette, President of the Foundation, in the columns of the newspaper which devotes a large file on this. This psychiatrist and geriatrician notes in passing that there are 8 times less funds allocated to Alzheimer’s disease than to cancer.
Lack of funds and lack of information, notes the journalist Pierre Bienvault. In any case, this is the opinion of one in two French people (55%). The latter are unaware of the symptoms of the disease (61%) and the means of diagnosing it (70%). And there are as many people who believe that treatments exist to slow the progression of the disease (30%) as skeptics (29%).
Same divide in the medical profession, says the journalist, who recalls that the High Authority for Health (HAS) had estimated in 2016 that anti-Alzheimer’s drugs had “insufficient medical interest to justify their reimbursement by national solidarity”.
Faced with pressure from specialists and patient associations, the Minister of Health at the time, Marisol Touraine, decided to maintain the reimbursement of these treatments.
The only optimistic note from the survey, three out of four French people remain confident for the future and in the ability of researchers to find effective molecules within ten years.
