Governments must take urgent action to prevent noncommunicable diseases from becoming an uncontrollable epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Sugar-sweetened beverage taxation offers a potential solution.
Appropriately designed taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages would result in proportional reductions in consumption.
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Rwanda’s food policies focus on production to make sure people have livelihoods and enough nutritious food. Not much attention is given to overnutrition.
Tension between the government’s economic and public health priorities is preventing stronger fiscal measures to address nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases.
The consumption of a lot of soft drinks is linked to increased obesity.
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Workplace-based interventions could make a substantial contribution to reducing the burden of noncommunicable diseases in the country.
This image was taken at the Hawzien market in Tigray, two years before the war which has put millions in need of emergency food assistance.
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The health and wellbeing effects will go beyond the direct impact of war-related fatalities, and are likely to last for years after peace is fully restored.
Ageing populations, changes in diet, physical inactivity and smoking are some of he drivers of strokes and heart disease.
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A stroke often leads to the sudden onset of weakness involving the face, arm or leg, an inability to speak, difficulty walking or impaired vision. Strokes can cause death and irreversible disability.
Nurses are the backbone of the health system.
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The rapid rise in diabetes mustn’t be overlooked, as it could have devastating health and economic effects. Most national health systems are already struggling with infectious diseases.
Experts say encouraging physical activity should be a priority.
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Being physically active is largely not an individual choice, but a result of what funds, spaces, places and opportunities are available to the individual and communities.
Depression screening must happen in the chronic care clinics.
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Depression and diabetes can occur together, and put huge strain on patients and health systems. Depression in patients with diabetes can cause poor self-management and poor treatment adherence.
Older people in urban informal settlements live in poor socioeconomic conditions.
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Interventions using apps show promise as they could improve care for patients with chronic conditions. But patients can’t benefit from innovations unless they accept them and use them effectively.
Living close to waste sites has multiple health risks.
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South Africa faces high levels of noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. The NHI is likely to battle to cope with treating large numbers of sick people.
A member of the nursing staff at Chandaria Health Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, measures the temperatures of visiting patients.
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Most facilities prioritize COVID-19 cases. In addition, curfews are still in effect in Kenya, which affects the working hours of clinics providing hypertension care services.
Professor and Programme Director, SA MRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science - PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons in Systems Strengthening South Africa), University of the Witwatersrand
Director of the Non-Communicable Diseases Research Unit at the South African Medical Research Council, Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Cape Town