We Are Fighting A Pandemic (And It's Not Just COVID)

Another pandemic? You must be kidding me? No! The fastest growing neurological disorder in the world is Parkinson's disease (PD). In India, ancient texts suggest Parkinson's disease existed as far back as around 1000 BC.^1,2

In 1855, only 22 people out of 15 million people in England and Wales died from Parkinson's disease. But, between 1990 to 2015, the number of people with PD doubled to over 6 million. This was an increase of 118 percent.^2,3

Why are numbers growing?

According to E. Ray Dorsey, in his article, "The Rise of Parkinson's Disease", the number of people with PD will double again. By 2040, the anticipated projections will rise to 12.9 million people.⁴

The increase is, in part, is due to an aging population. Additionally, life expectancy has increased with advancements in medical care. It is also due to increased industrialization in developing countries, exposure to toxic chemicals, and pollution.⁴

Advocacy efforts

Parkinson's disease is the longest continuously expanding worldwide pandemic. In my opinion, this PD pandemic will require swift action. I feel that it is necessary to have heightened activism, focused planning, and novel approaches to combat it.¹

Undoubtedly, I urge everyone to bring our voices together to move our government forward to find a cure. By doing so, people with Parkinson's can reap much-needed rewards.

I feel that America usually comes out on top when we are moved to action. We recently were moved to action with the vaccines for the COVID-19. This is evident in finding the cure for diseases like polio, measles and winning wars as well.

We try to successfully address issues such as the civil rights movement, the space race, or global warming when moved to action.

Unite our voices

I have personally written to my elected leaders to urge them to help. They need to take the Parkinson's disease pandemic seriously and bring PD research and care to the forefront.

The bottom line is, we need to unite our voices and come together as a community right now to defeat PD. Therefore, world leaders need to zero in on a balanced approach that focuses on the short-term needs as well as a long-term plan to stop this continuously expanding pandemic.

It is now time to realize that, unlike an epidemic, this Parkinson's pandemic is not going away soon.

Bring attention to PD

In summary, PD is spreading worldwide. Activism by the world community is needed to bring attention to this problem.

As a country, America has defeated Polio, AIDS, TB, Measles, Whooping Cough and the list goes on.

I feel that each of us must focus on community action to demand that our leaders and scientists are seriously working on finding a cure for Parkinson's disease now.