ODESSA, Texas — Alzheimer's disease is a form of dementia.
“Every 66 seconds somebody is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, 390,000 Texans living with Alzheimer's disease two-thirds of those are women," said Mary McCourt.
An increasing number of people being diagnosed is something doctors consider alarming.
"We are only seeing the tip of the ice burg. As the major baby boomers will get older in the next two or three decades the prevalence of dementia is only going to rise," said Dr. Jain with Texas Tech Health Sciences.
Mary McCourt the chairperson for the walk to end Alzheimer's says that people need to be aware that the strain of the disease goes beyond family ties.
Some advocates are predicting that if scientist's momentum slows down or becomes stagnant the increased number of Alzheimer's patients will put a strain on the government.
"So it's going to best interest of Washington D.C. to give us to give the money that we need for a cure ultimately because if not this disease could bankrupt Medicare and Medicaid," said Mary McCourt.
According to the Alzheimer's association right now for every $28,000 spent on patient care, $100 goes towards research.
"The sad part about this is that very few psychiatrists professionalized in geriatric psychology or psychology literature for older folks. So we need some resources and training to deal with the huge avalanche of folks coming with dementia in the next ten to twenty years," said Jain.
The amount of funds needed is only expected to increase in relation to the increasing number of Alzheimer's patients.
Researchers believe with proper funding they're on their way to a cure by 2025.