BBC World News America Turns The Spotlight On Alzheimer's Disease

A Dominican family from Manhattan that has been ravaged by Alzheimer's disease is the focus of one of a powerful series of BBC World News America films looking at the condition that could already affect as many as twenty million people worldwide.

Alzheimer's: A Global Health Emergency airs in four parts on BBC World News America next week from Monday, July 28 to Thursday July, 31. The nightly newscast airs weeknights at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT on BBC AMERICA and BBC World News cable channels.

The annual global cost of treating and caring for Alzheimer's patients could be as high as $190 billion and by 2050, more than 60 million people could have the disease. More than 100 years after the disease was discovered there are no drugs available that stop or reverse the course of the disease and billions are now being spent by pharmaceutical companies around the world on the search for an effective treatment.

In this fascinating series of films (that coincide with next week's International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease in Chicago), BBC World News America meets scientists, carers and those with the disease, and asks whether governments are doing enough to fund research and provide care for sufferers and their families.

Part One: Alzheimer's: What Do We Know?

Airs Monday, July 28 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Flossie Wilhelm is 78-years-old and was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1993. Now in the last stages of the disease, she has not recognized or spoken to her daughter Dianne Kerley for more than a year. Flossie's care in a Missouri nursing home costs her family $47,000 a year and there is very little doctors can do for her other than wash and feed her and keep her comfortable.

Dianne Kerley is undergoing a battery of medical and neurological testing, part of a national study to find out what causes the disease. BBC World News America talks to one of the study's most eminent scientists about what he, and most of the scientific community believes, causes the disease - a build up of 'plaques' in the brain.

Part Two: Early Onset Alzheimer's: Profile of a Young Sufferer

Airs Tuesday, July 29 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT.

BBC World News America presents a moving interview with Kris Bakowski, a 52-year-old woman coping with early onset Alzheimer's. In a moving, powerful interview she tells the program how the disease is slowly destroying her life. The program meets her in Washington as she lobbies lawmakers to increase federal research funding which has remained stagnant for four years.

Part Three: The Gene Hunters

Airs Wednesday, July 30 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Researchers at The Taub Institute, an Alzheimer's disease research center based in Manhattan, are trying to discover the faulty genes that lead to Alzheimer's. After discovering that Dominicans living in Manhattan were three times more likely than their white neighbours to have the disease, the researchers have been collecting their DNA and those of their relatives back in the Dominican Republic to construct one of the largest family trees of its kind in the world. BBC World News America visits both Manhattan and the Dominican Republic to meet a Dominican family that has been ravaged by the disease.

Part Four: Alzheimer's in South Korea

Airs Thursday, July 31 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT.

South Korea has the most rapidly ageing population in the world and the government there have made Alzheimer's a national health priority. John Sudworth reports on the impact the disease is having on a society where traditionally families - not the State - take primary responsibility for caring for their elderly. He also reports on the government's massive building program to provide care homes for the elderly.

ABOUT BBC WORLD NEWS AMERICA

Airs weeknights at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT on BBC AMERICA and the 24-hour global BBC World News channel.

Anchored by Matt Frei from the BBC's Washington DC bureau, each evening BBC World News America delivers in-depth reports on the major international and U.S. news of the day. Special packages from the BBC's expert correspondents go beyond the headlines to provide context and analysis on the national and international events that shape our increasingly complex world. And from the DC studio, Matt interviews newsmakers of the day and leads roundtable discussions featuring expert opinion from commentators and major players. www.bbcamerica.com/content/169/worldhome.jsp