Since at least the time of the Industrial Revolution, American philanthropists have fueled scientific innovation and civic development throughout the United States.
Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie funded nearly 3,000 public libraries, including one in Vancouver. Oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller helped launch the field of biomedical research and largely financed the University of Chicago. And numerous other industrialists created foundations that continue to pay dividends generations later. Even in Vancouver, George Propstra, who built the Burgerville chain into a regional treasure, has his name on a baseball stadium and a public pool and a square in Esther Short Park — all because of his philanthropy and civic leadership.
So, when Bill Gates announces that he is investing $50 million of his personal fortune to help develop treatments for Alzheimer’s, it is noteworthy. The Seattle resident, co-founder of Microsoft and one of the modern era’s leading philanthropists, recently said that he is donating money to the Dementia Discovery Fund, a London-based private-public partnership.
“It’s a terrible disease that devastates both those who have it and their loved ones,” Gates wrote in announcing his contribution. “I know how awful it is to watch people you love struggle as the disease robs them of their mental capacity, and there is nothing you can do about it. It feels a lot like you’re experiencing a gradual death of the person you knew.”
Alzheimer’s, which destroys memory and other mental functions, afflicts more than 5 million Americans and is regarded as the nation’s sixth-leading cause of death. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, as many as 16 million Americans are expected to be afflicted by 2050, and experts believe the disease will exact an increasing worldwide toll.
Not only is Alzheimer’s emotionally difficult for families it touches, it also is financially burdensome. As Gates wrote, “A person with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia spends five times more every year out-of-pocket on health care than a senior without a neurodegenerative condition.” As the number of Alzheimer’s and dementia patients grows, that will put a strain on the entire health care system.
At this point, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s; for many patients, effective treatments are difficult to find. One novel approach to addressing the affliction is found in Hogeway, a Dutch village inhabited only by dementia patients and caregivers. The town is designed to give residents some sense of normalcy — homes are decorated in the style of the 1960s or 1970s or 2000s or whenever a patient’s memory stopped functioning — while avoiding the institutionalized feeling of standard facilities.
Gates is not the first person to draw attention to the need for Alzheimer’s research. Several billion dollars have been spent in this country alone. But, according to AARP, annual federal funding for such research is about 10 percent of the amount spent on cancer and about 50 percent of that spent on heart disease. Those diseases are deserving of attention, as well, but the expected social and health care costs created by Alzheimer’s in the coming decades call for increased funding now. “We don’t really have anything that stops Alzheimer’s, and so the growing burden is pretty unbelievable,” Gates told CNN.
Through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates and his wife have secured spots among the world’s great philanthropists, boosting educational and medical efforts throughout the world. By throwing his weight behind attempts to treat and eventually cure Alzheimer’s, Gates is adding to an already significant legacy.
