Doctors diagnosed Chen with Alzheimer's Disease, the most common form of dementia, where people suffer impaired cognitive function including memory loss, eventually needing full-time care. The United States has 6.2 million Alzheimer's patients and 73,000 beds in specialist treatment centres, while China has double the cases but fewer than 200 beds. "No healthcare problem looms larger in China than Alzheimer's Disease," said Wei Shouchao, a neurologist from Guangdong medical university. "Even Beijing has only one care home with staff trained to handle Alzheimer's patients." The team says it has helped find about 300 missing Alzheimer's patients since 2016.

Source: Bangkok Post September 19, 2021 05:15 UTC