World Alzheimer’s day is being celebrated on 21 September, every year and this year, the City of Vrsac and the Special Hospital for Psychiatric Diseases „Dr Slavoljub Bakalovic“ Vrsac have been “lit purple”, to show support to persons suffering from Alzheimer’s.

Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative brain disorder which occurs in mid or late years, which destroys neurons and connections in the cerebral cortex, which in turn, leads to significant loss of brain mass. Today, Alzheimer’s disease is condsidered to be the main cause of senile dementia, which was before thought as a „normal“ condition in aging.

Alzheimer’s disease is a chronic neurodegenerative disease causing gradual and irreversible loss of memory, the ability to speak, time and spatial orientation and eventually, the ability to take care of oneself. The most common early symptoms are problems with short-term memory loss.

With further progression of the illness, the person suffering from Alzheimer’s retreats from the family and the society, gradually losing bodily functions, which, ultimately, leads to death.

On average, 6 to 10 percent of the population older than 65 suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and just more than 1 % of younger ones, as mentioned in various research from around the world. It is imperative to diagnose the disease as soon as possible, in order to provide a much higher quality of life for persons suffering from Alzheimer’s and to be able to raise the efficiency of the existing symptomatic therapy.

The SHPD Vrsac has officialy opened the Centre for Dementia this year, with a capacity of 30 beds, built through the implementation of the project „Healthy aging and Dementia – better life“, financed through the Interreg-IPA Cross-border Cooperation Romania-serbia Programme. The department’s capacity has been filled since the day of official opening.