HIV/AIDS and chronic diseases - learning from each other

JOHANNESBURG: Health officials in sub-Saharan Africa are finally focusing on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, diabetes and chronic lung disease, having spent much of the past decade concentrating on HIV/AIDS and malaria.

The growth of NCDs in developing countries has gone almost unnoticed, having been largely perceived as a problem affecting affluent countries. But NCDs have overtaken infectious diseases as the leading cause of death worldwide, with nearly 80 percent of these deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The UN High-level Meeting on NCDs on 19-20 September sought to identify concrete actions to tackle the issue. The last time the UN held such a meeting on a disease was 10 years ago for HIV/AIDS and the similarities do not end there.

Countries grappling with HIV prevalence are now faced with rising epidemics of chronic diseases. UNAIDS has warned that diabetes cases, for example, will rise by 50 percent globally and by 100 percent in sub-Saharan Africa between 2010 and 2030.

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