Abstract:
here has been considerable
concern regarding the rapidly
growing prevalence of diabetes,
particularly in resource-rich settings
as a result of the shift toward more
sedentary lifestyles that occurs with
calorie-rich diets (1). Although much
of the global attention to diabetes has
focused on resource-rich settings and
emerging markets, the diabetes ep-
idemic has also been expanding in
resource-constrained settings such
as sub-Saharan Africa (2). Estimates
from the International Diabetes
Federation suggest that the preva-
lence of diabetes is expected to in-
crease by 98% in sub-Saharan Africa
by 2030, in contrast to an expected
54% increase in the rest of the world
(3). Furthermore, there is an alarm-
ingly high mortality rate attributable
to diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa
compared with all other parts of the
world, with 76.4% of diabetes-related
deaths occurring in people <60 years
of age (4).
Despite these disturbing trends,
there has been little effort to address
this growing burden. Currently, most
funding for international health care
development focuses on communi-
cable diseases, especially HIV and
tuberculosis (5). However, the infra-
structure that has been established
to manage chronic infectious dis-
eases such as HIV can be adapted to
address many other chronic diseases,
including diabetes (6–8).
