Just 60 Alzheimer’s trials of African patients have ever been recorded in the International Clinical Trials Registry, according to an analysis by POLITICO. All of these took place in just five of the continent’s 54 countries: 50 in South Africa and one each in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Uganda. The U.S. has had 19 times as many trials, numbering more than 1,150.
It’s also a live issue: Africa has one of the fastest-aging populations in the world, and the number of people living with the disease is growing. But when many of Africa’s eminent dementia researchers came together to confront the scale of the problem the continent faces, they found “vast gaps in knowledge regarding Alzheimer’s and other dementias in the African continent.”
More research is not only critical for the health of African people, but also “promises to lead to an improved understanding of the biology of [Alzheimer’s] that will benefit individuals and populations all over the world and further promote effective prevention, treatment and care,” the researchers argued.
The diagnosis problem
Drugmakers, who want their drugs to reach the most patients possible, are also turning toward Africa. Eli Lilly, for example, told POLITICO it has hired a consultant to evaluate where future clinical trials might be possible on the continent.
There are immense obstacles to researching Alzheimer’s in Africa, however, starting with the most basic: diagnosing the disease.
The eventual emergence of blood tests to identify the pathology of Alzheimer’s could be a way to include African countries in future trials | Alexis Huguet/AFP via Getty Images
“The biggest challenge for me is the tools that are used in evaluating [patients],” said Noeline Nakasujja, head of the psychiatry department at Uganda’s University of Makerere. If tools such as cognitive tests aren’t adapted to local settings so they’re familiar to patients there, she said, it’s really hard to use them in an evaluation.
Source link : https://www.politico.eu/article/why-africa-could-unlock-the-secrets-of-alzheimers/
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Publish date : 2023-11-06 08:00:00
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