Sales of unhealthy foods and beverages in sub-Saharan Africa are skyrocketing. This is leading to an increase in obesity related conditons such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease.
These diseases are projected to become the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030, overtaking communicable diseases like HIV and TB. The economic cost of noncommunicable diseases is immense. They result in significant disability, and can be very expensive to treat. In South Africa, the medical cost of diabetes was R2.7 billion in 2018.
But noncommunicable diseases are preventable. The economic and societal impact can be mitigated if governments take decisive action to reduce the availability of harmful products such as unhealthy food, alcohol and tobacco.