AN INTERNATIONAL epidemic of Alzheimer's could have disastrous effects on health and social services unless a national strategy is drawn up to deal with it, experts claim.

Researchers in the USA predict that the figure of 26 million people living with the disease worldwide could rise to 106 million by 2050 because medical advances are enabling people to live longer.

Alzheimer's itself is incurable.

In Britain there are 700,000 people with dementia, of whom 400,000 - including one in five of people over 80 - have Alzheimer's.

Their care costs the government and sufferers' families £11 billion a year.

Last month the Alzheimer's Society revealed that the number of people living with dementia in South West England would increase by more than 25,000 in the next 14 years.

Peter Storms, vice-chairman of the Poole and District branch of the society, said the problem would be worse on the south coast because of the increasing concentration of over-65s.

"As people get older and live longer, the number of sufferers is going to increase.

"It will have a dramatic impact on the provision of services, care facilities and carers," he warned.

"There is already a shortage of facilities for dementia patients in existing care homes.

"We've got bed-blocking now and it can only get worse if we don't do something about it.

"We've got to have joined-up thinking across the NHS, private care sector and social services.

"What we need is a firm commitment from the people at the top of the organisations to say: This is what we're going to have to do'."

Mr Storms called for a rethink of the NHS policy of prescribing the only effective Alzheimer's drugs in the later stages of the disease. The policy is being challenged in the High Court on June 25.

"The decision was to save money, but if these drugs extended a sufferer's entry into a care home by just five years, it would have a dramatic effect on the need for beds now and in the future," he said.