USA2 SPOTLIGHT 

A March 9, 2016 NextAvenue article highlighted B. Smith and her husband Dan Gasby’s new book “Before I Forget” about their journey with Alzheimer’s and the impact of the disease on African Americans. The article also featured UsAgainstAlzheimer’s Stephanie Monroe and Jill Lesser: “While African Americans represent about 14 percent of the population, they bear over 30 percent of the costs of Alzheimer’s disease," said Stephanie Monroe, executive director of AfricanAmericansAgainstAlzheimer’s. Launched in 2013, the organization is dedicated to labor intensive in-person community engagement to educate African Americans about the disease and to encourage more participation in clinical trials so essential to finding a cure.

A March 7, 2016 NextAvenue article highlighted Nancy Reagan’s caregiving legacy and her impact on the Alzheimer’s movement. According to the article, “With Nancy Reagan’s help, awareness of Alzheimer’s disease and steps to finding a cure through stem cell research have grown considerably but not fast enough, according to leading advocacy groups such as the Alzheimer’s Association and UsAgainstAlzheimer’s network.”

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A March 9, 2016 The Telegraph UK article reported that “Alzheimer’s disease could be caused by herpes virus, warn experts.” According to the article, “The worldwide team of 31 senior scientists and clinicians, which include specialists from Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Manchester Universities and Imperial College, have written an editorial which suggests that microbes are the major cause of dementia. The herpes virus - the type which causes cold sores - and chlamydia bacteria are named as the major culprits, as well as a type of corkscrew-shaped bacteria called spirochaete.” 

A March 8, 2016 The Washington Post article by Diana Whitney offered a glimpse into her family’s struggle with Alzheimer’s. According to Whitney, “But now I’d lost her. Whenever I mentioned the actual disease, she tended to drift away from the conversation on a powerful current of denial. As if the symptoms of Alzheimer’s had nothing to do with her…How much we all loved her! How hard we were trying! But I could not imagine her loneliness, waking to the empty house each morning, confusion flooding back after the bliss of unconsciousness, not knowing which stranger would arrive to make her breakfast, or how she would spend the day.” Diana Whitney’s first book, “Wanting It,” became an indie bestseller and won the Rubery International Book Award in poetry.

A March 8, 2016 Yahoo! Music article reported that “Almost five years after his initial diagnosis, Glen Campbell is now in the final stages of Alzheimer’s.”