Africans living longer, but their diseases are nastier too

Cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular illnesses are really wreaking havoc

MALARIA, HIV/Aids, pneumonia and diarrhoea are the leading killers on the African continent, according to a recently released study of the burden of diseases across the world.

In 1980 the list looked different. Then the leading killer diseases were also diarrhoea, pneumonia and malaria, but tuberculosis and measles were up there with them.

A worldwide study published in the Lancet health journal on the Global Burden of Disease measured which health problems have had an impact on populations. The information was collected by more than 1 800 researchers from more than 120 countries.

While people in Africa are living longer, non-communicable diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer are wreaking havoc.

The study shows that sub-Saharan Africa is going through an epidemiological transition. This means as countries increase their levels of development, their communicable disease burdens are declining and their life expectancies are rising – but that the burden of non-communicable diseases and injuries are rising.

It was found that just over 8 million people died in sub-Saharan Africa in 2015. More than half of these deaths were due to malaria, HIV/Aids, maternal and child diseases, anaemia and malnutrition. More than a third of the deaths were due to cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

Life expectancy for both men and women has increased from 52 years in 1980 to 62 years in 2015.

HIV/Aids was the leading killer in both South Africa and Kenya. In Nigeria the leading killer was malaria.

In South Africa, ischemic heart disease and tuberculosis were also major killers. But in Nigeria and Kenya, diarrhoeal diseases and pneumonia were among the top killers.

The study shows, however, that the diseases that kill people are not typically those that make them sick. This differed by region.

In South Africa, diabetes was highest on the list of diseases that made people sick. In the other countries, iron-deficiency anaemia, neglected tropical diseases and depression were responsible.

Wiysonge is a Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Stellenbosch University. This article was first published in The Conversation.