World Alzheimer's Day

The day aims at raising awareness about the disease, dementia, common symptoms, and risk factors attached to it. In many countries, World Alzheimer's Day is observed throughout the month. The day also raises awareness about the severity of Alzheimer's disease and its causes.

Since 1994, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Alzheimer's International Federation established September 21 as World Alzheimer's Day. This World Day seeks to disseminate information about this disease in order to generate greater knowledge about it, raise awareness among the population and encourage sufferers to attend support groups.

Alzheimer's is a progressive and degenerative disease of the brain, which causes deterioration of memory, thinking and behavior. It is considered the most common dementia and the cause is unknown.

This dementia usually presents in three stages. The first stage develops over approximately three years, in which a gradual deterioration in episodic memory is observed, the person forgets recent events, no matter whether 10, 15 or 20 minutes have passed since a given event.