Africa is Seeing a Surge of Dementia Cases. Families Aren't Sure what to Do

In the night, when all that glows on this hilltop is the moonlight and all that moves are branches tickled by a soft breeze, the tumult returns.

- PT News

The old woman grows convinced her house is on fire and, panicked, drags the table, chairs and the rest of her few worldly possessions, outside. Unable to calm his mother, her son knows just one way to end it. “She yells,” the son, 62-year-old Herbert Rutabyama, says matter-of-factly. “She pounds on the door.” Dementia's prevalence has long been muted on this continent where lifespans have trailed the rest of the world for as long as anyone has kept track. But as the population of older people increases across Africa, experts are seeing a spike in new diagnoses, each of them bringing profound challenges to the patient and their family. A surge of new cases of dementia is expected across Africa in the coming years as the demographic shift continues. But, already, the desperation of those caring for people living with diseases like Alzheimer's is beginning to show. They turn for help in a place with little to offer. In many of the languages spoken on this continent, they don't even have a word for dementia. This day, the crew from Reach One Touch One is making its rounds in this western Uganda villag