Action or more talk?

Global leaders attending this week’s G7 summit in Japan will discuss the usual topics of world security, Chinese muscle-flexing and prospects for the economy. The need to continue supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia, the threat to Taiwan and, in the background, the risk of a US debt default will doubtless all feature at the gathering in Hiroshima.

But the Japanese hosts have put an additional item on the agenda – tackling dementia.

With populations ageing, degenerative brain diseases pose the greatest threat to public health of any condition, except obesity. In Japan, where a small proportion of the population is overweight, the impact of dementia is commensurately greater.

The Japanese government wants world leaders to pledge more money to a concerted effort to find a cure for the disease. This is the second such push. Ten years ago, when the UK hosted the then G8 summit and held a special conference on dementia, similar promises were made.

Tokyo hopes to secure an updated declaration, matching the scope of the commitments made in 2013; but unless they are followed through the exercise is pointless.

Despite some hopeful trials, a cure for dementia and aggressive iterations like Alzheimer’s disease still seems a long way off. More funding for research and greater international cooperation is needed because with an ageing population the problem will only become more acute. In the absence of a cure, better treatments and improving access to care are both important yet hard to deliver when health services – and especially the NHS – are under such pressure.

If G7 leaders can engineer a significant move against dementia then the summit, which is often criticised as a talking shop, would leave a lasting legacy.