As diabetes progresses, insulin injections become the only treatment option. But the transition from oral medication to injectable insulin is often a bumpy one.
A factor holding back African research is the lack of strong collaborative networks between African laboratories and institutions.
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Drug discovery research in Africa receives modest but essential international funding through philanthropic foundations and selected pharmaceutical companies.
Diabetes can be controlled using medicines, diet and lifestyle modification.
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The provision of better health services and social grants has aided rural women’s progress in South Africa, but there are still tremendous needs to be met.
Healthcare worker, Boitsholo Mfolo, inside the digital x-ray truck at one of Africa Health Research Institute’s mobile screening camps in rural KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.
Samora Chapman/ Africa Health Research Institute
Emily B. Wong, Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI)
South Africa needs a public health response that expands the successes of the country’s HIV testing and treatment programme to provide care for multiple diseases.
Many South Africans live in poor conditions with no access to running water.
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Harsh socio-environmental factors, especially when they happen in the early years of a child’s life, can establish a developmental “biology of misfortune”.
Diabetes is a leading cause of death in the country.
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In 2019, 89,834 people died of diabetes. This number exceeds the capacity of Soccer City, the biggest football stadium in South Africa.
Scientist Kafayat Falana testing the viability of cowpea germinated seeds in a laboratory in Ibadan, southwest Nigeria.
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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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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