{"id":376896,"date":"2026-04-05T22:16:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T22:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/376896\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T22:16:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T22:16:20","slug":"editorial-hong-kongs-world-first-alzheimers-blood-test-will-strengthen-citys-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/376896\/","title":{"rendered":"Editorial | Hong Kong\u2019s world-first Alzheimer\u2019s blood test will strengthen city\u2019s healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The number of people suffering from Alzheimer\u2019s disease, the most common form of <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/health-wellness\/series\/3206510\/decoding-dementia?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dementia<\/a>, has grown to more than 50 million globally. Scientists around the world continue to seek a cure for the disease, while working to develop drugs that can delay the onset of symptoms and slow its progression.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Early diagnosis, allowing careful plans to be made for the treatment and care of sufferers, is essential. Many people are unaware they have the disease. But screening has been expensive and invasive.<\/p>\n<p>A scheme <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/hong-kong\/health-environment\/article\/3347591\/hkust-launches-programme-offering-alzheimers-blood-based-test-elderly?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">recently launched<\/a> by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the first of its kind, is making a simple, free blood test available to 6,000 elderly residents aged between 60 and 75.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Scientists at the university led an international collaboration to develop the groundbreaking test which uses blood biomarkers to enable early detection of Alzheimer\u2019s disease and mild cognitive impairment. It has been found to have an accuracy rate of 96 per cent in identifying Alzheimer\u2019s. This is a significant development with the potential to transform the way in which the disease is approached.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The aim of the five-year programme is to shift the treatment of Alzheimer\u2019s from late-stage elderly patients in hospitals to earlier intervention in the community. This will help sufferers and their carers cope with the devastating impact of the disease, which affects one in 10 Hong Kong residents aged 60 and over.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The HK$30 million (US$3.8 million) scheme, which includes biomarker evaluations and advanced brain imaging for those eligible, marks another step in Hong Kong\u2019s broader moves to identify and tackle health problems early.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The number of people suffering from Alzheimer\u2019s disease, the most common form of dementia, has grown to more&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[337,114,1657,184,163,521,3448,85,46,231,43,545,5959,2224,125,208,2711],"class_list":{"0":"post-376896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-asia","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-healthcare","14":"tag-hong-kong","15":"tag-il","16":"tag-israel","17":"tag-lifestyle","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-opinion","20":"tag-south-china-morning-post","21":"tag-sport","22":"tag-technology","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}