Diabetes in Sub-Saharan Africa - Overview of a Looming Health Challenge

The number of people living with diabetes in the world is increasing rapidly. Most of the increase will occur in developing countries such as those in sub-Saharan Africa. Diabetes is currently recognised as a real and imminent threat to social and economic development globally and is set to be a major public health challenge in the 21st century. In sub-Saharan Africa, the challenge posed by diabetes is even more overwhelming since diabetes will have to share scarce resources with infections and malnutrition. Even worse, diabetes still has to gain sufficient political and social recognition in order to warrant aggressive national policies for prevention and treatment. In this article we present an overview of the burden of diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa and the specificities of care and control, and highlight the importance of developing effective national diabetes programmes.