Neurodegenerative disease: The next occupational disease epidemic?

Globally, neurological disorders account for about 4% of all deaths and about 5% of disability-adjusted life-years from non-communicable disease.1 Diagnosis of a neurological disease can be devastating, and in most instances there is no cure. A recent editorial in the Lancet2 commented that neurological diseases remain neglected and ignored: ‘unlike cancer, stroke, and diabetes, which all have strategies and clinical champions, degenerative disorders are heterogeneous and complex’. Neurological disease includes a broad spectrum of conditions, several of which have occupational causes. The motor neurone diseases (MND) are a spectrum of neurodegenerative disorders characterised by progressive muscular paralysis due to degeneration of motor neurones in the primary motor cortex, brainstem and spinal cord.3 Although the vast majority of cases of (MND) are ‘sporadic’ (ie, non-genetic), most current research into the causes of MND involves primarily or solely genetic factors and few studies of occupational...
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - Category: Occupational Health Authors: Tags: Other exposures Editorial (Hot topic) Source Type: research