Obesity and diabetes almost out of control

Health systems unable to cope with epidemic

The weight of the increasing diabetes and obesity epidemic in South Africa threatens to crush the country’s overloaded health system‚ experts warn.

South Africa and Egypt are driving the rapidly growing diabetes epidemic on the continent‚ according to the first major study in Africa on diabetes and obesity.

Lead author Professor Andre Kengne‚ director of the Non-Communicable Diseases Research Unit based at Tygerberg Hospital‚ said their analysis found diabetes and weight gain had risen between 1980 and 2014.

He said: “Africa is the region in the world where diabetes is growing fastest. It is growing faster than our coping capacity. We want to find a way to get it under control and that is why we are piloting the SA diabetes prevention project.”

Nicholas van Rooy‚ 47‚ is among more than 400 people from seven Cape Town townships who have joined the project. He was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2011.

“Taking part in this research is like getting a second opinion‚ to see if what I’m doing is working. I have changed my eating habits and I do self-testing at home‚” said the father of two. His sister-inlaw and mother-in-law have type 2 diabetes.

Unlike in previous decades‚ type 2 diabetes is also occurring at a younger age.

Kengne said: “This used to be an adult condition and now it is not uncommon to see it in 15 year olds. If we are only targeting adults‚ we will miss it.”

Half the people in South Africa and most citizens of other African countries with this insidious disease are unaware they have it. A landmark study on diabetes in subSaharan African reported in July that diabetes and other cardiovascular diseases were overtaking HIV/Aids‚ respiratory infections‚ diarrhoeal diseases and malaria as the leading causes of death.

More than a dozen specialists globally joined the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology Commission to produce the report. The commission noted that health systems “are unable to cope with the current burden of diabetes and its complications”.

Co-lead author Professor Justine Davies‚ from King’s College London‚ said: “In most African countries people are dying of type 1 diabetes. It is not being diagnosed and treated.”

Genetics may not yet predict diabetes risk but a high body mass index (BMI) does raise red flags. The African study‚ based on data from more than 1.2 million people‚ proved a positive association between BMI and diabetes rates in men and women.

The SA Medical Research Council and the Imperial College collated the results. –