CA SCR140

Proclaims April 2026 as Parkinson's Disease Awareness Month in California

Parkinson's disease affects approximately 1.6 million people in the United States, with over 130,000 in California, and is the fastest growing neurological disease in the country

The disease costs an estimated $52 billion annually nationwide and $5.8 billion in California for direct and indirect health care costs

California's Parkinson's Disease Registry, created in 2017 and now expanded as the Neurodegenerative Disease Registry, has partnered with over 500 health entities including Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health, and Stanford Health Care to collect patient data for research

In April 2023, the Michael J. Fox Foundation announced validation of the first-ever biomarker for Parkinson's disease, enabling detection of abnormal proteins in individuals before clinical symptoms appear