面對癡呆症的洶涌浪潮 中國時間不多了
Thirty years from now, China’s elderly population will vastly outnumber its younger citizens. In a country where assisted-living homes are scarce, and dementia is not widely understood, asks Nathan VanderKlippe, will people pay the price before the government does?
30年後，中國老年人口將大大超過年輕人口數量。在老年養護中心稀缺以及老年癡呆症不被廣泛瞭解的情況下，大衆會早於政府付出代價嗎？
Dementia in China presents one of Earth’s largest and costliest public-health crises, a slow-moving calamity of human suffering that also portends economic and political danger.
中國的老年癡呆問題是世界上規模最大成本最昂貴的公共健康危機之一，這種導致人類痛苦的疾病也預示着經濟和政治危機。
As the fuel for China’s industrial engines – cheap labour, hungry consumers, a burgeoning cohort of middle-class workers – slowly dwindles, so too does its ability to propel the global economy.
作爲中國工業引擎的助推劑——廉價勞動力，飢渴的消費者，壯大的中產階級工人——正緩慢削弱，所以中國推動全球經濟發展的能力也在減弱。
Meanwhile, the cost to the nation of caring for the most vulnerable among the elderly will be staggering. In little more than a decade, some scholars predict, demographics will help drag China’s economic growth rate below that of the U.S.
同時，照顧老年人口中那一最弱羣體（即癡呆患者）所需要的成本也將是驚人的。一些學者預計，在10多年後，人口問題將把中國的經濟增長率拉低到美國之下。
The fast-growing ranks of the elderly are already creating difficult and growing social problems.
而不斷增加的老年人口數量正不斷的引發嚴重的社會問題。
