Deaths from noncommunicable diseases on the rise in Africa

17 April, 2022

From the WHO Africa website. Read online: https://www.afro.who.int/news/deaths-noncommunicable-diseases-rise-africa

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Deaths from noncommunicable diseases on the rise in Africa

11 April 2022

Accra/Brazzaville – Noncommunicable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes are increasingly becoming the main cause of mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, where the diseases were responsible for 37% of deaths in 2019, rising from 24% in 2000 largely due to weaknesses in the implementation of critical control measures including prevention, diagnosis and care...

The rising burden of noncommunicable diseases will exert pressure on treatment and care services. In the African region, the number of people living with diabetes, for example, is expected to reach 47 million by 2045 up from 19 million in 2019...

One of the crucial ways of controlling noncommunicable diseases is by reducing the risk factors which include tobacco consumption, harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity. Improved investment in detection, screening and treatment... are the other significant measures to lower the growing burden of noncommunicable diseases...

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COMMENT (NPW): Failure to access and apply relevant, reliable healthcare information for patients and health workers is a major contributor to preventable suffering and death from NCDs. For example, obesity is dramatically increasing worldwide and leads to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer... Yet many people are unaware of the health risks asssociated with obesity. https://www.instagram.com/hifa_org/

Best wishes, Neil

Neil Pakenham-Walsh, Global Coordinator HIFA, www.hifa.org neil@hifa.org