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Bill Gates investing $100 million to fight Alzheimer's

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - 11/13/2017

Nov. 13--Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates announced Monday that he is committing $100 million in the fight against Alzheimer's disease.

Gates said he's investing $50 million to the Dementia Discovery Fund-- a fund that brings together non-profits, governments and private industry to identify treatments for dementia. He also plans to invest another $50 million in start-up ventures working in Alzheimer's research.

"The human cost of Alzheimer's is much more difficult to put into numbers," Gates wrote on his blog . "It's a terrible disease that devastates both those who have it and their loved ones. This is something I know a lot about, because men in my family have suffered from Alzheimer's. I know how awful it is to watch people you love struggle as the disease robs them of their mental capacity, and there is nothing you can do about it. It feels a lot like you're experiencing a gradual death of the person that you knew."

Dementia, of which Alzheimer's is the most common form, affects close to 50 million people worldwide and is expected to afflict more than 131 million by 2050, according to the nonprofit group Alzheimer's Disease International.

More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's and they are cared for by over 15 million family caregivers, according to the Alzheimer's Association.

"This fact--that people are living longer than ever before--should always be a wonderful thing," Gates said on his blog. "But what happens when it's not? The longer you live, the more likely you are to develop a chronic condition. Your risk of getting arthritis, Parkinson's, or another non-infectious disease that diminishes your quality of life increases with each year. But of all the disorders that plague us late in life, one stands out as a particularly big threat to society: Alzheimer's disease."

People with dementia spend five times more annually on out-of-pocket health expenses than those who don't have Alzheimer's, and the disease accounts for direct American health care costs of $259 billion in 2017, with projected growth to $1.1 trillion in 2050, according to the Alzheimer's Association.

"Gates has invested a great deal of time to better understand the full scope of the disease and how he can play a significant role in accelerating progress," the asociation said in a statement. The Alzheimer's Association commends Bill Gates for digging in and joining the cause."

Ben Schmitt is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7991, bschmitt@tribweb.com or via Twitter at @Bencschmitt.

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