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Several recent writers have asked for figures about how many people have PD in the US, in Canada, in the world. I don't have the answer, but I can report that it isn't a matter of just locating the number in a book. A couple of hours in a medical library proved quite frustrating. The World Health Organization publishes some figures, but the classification of various neurological disorders is not uniform, so I couldn't tell if I was counting apples or oranges. I concluded that there remains a tremendous amount of very basic data gathering to be done on PD. Even in a small state like Hawaii we have been unable to get firm numbers, let alone lists of PD patients.There is of course the issue of confidentiality, but I cannot help thinking that if all our national organizations merged or at least worked better together we could fill in many of the gaps in our knowledge. In this regard the success of Margot Zobel's group in getting four organizations to endorse a Unity Walk is most inspiring. I hope she will continue to report such efforts so that more cities can unite their efforts. PD has get better organized if we hope to get something as important as the udall bill through. Twenty years ago no one had ever heard of Alzheimer's disease! In her last posting, Ms. Zobel mentioned that three cities are co-ordinating PD Unity Walks. Which cities? What's involved? I'd love to hear more about that. Allen Trubitt ([log in to unmask]