The Nation - News from April 8, 1987

The aging of the baby boom generation will spur a fivefold increase in victims of Alzheimer’s disease by the year 2040 if no treatment is found, a congressional study says. “This is a disease that will very soon be affecting one out of every three families in the United States,” said Bob Cook-Deegan, project director of the 539-page report by the congressional Office of Technology Assessment. The nonpartisan office projected that 7.4 million Americans will have Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia in 2040 if researchers do not find a way to prevent it before then, five times the number now afflicted.