YANKTON, S.D.(WNAX)- New drugs and expanded research into Alzheimer’s disease treatments are giving hope to patients and their families.

Leslie Morrow, Executive Director of the Alzheimer’s Association of South Dakota, says drugs like Aduhelm and Aricept offer more aggressive treatments.

Morrow says more funding is going to research.

Morrow says some of that funding is flowing to research in South Dakota.

Morrow says about eighteen thousand people in South Dakota have Alzheimer’s or a similar form of dementia.