Diabetes taking growing toll on Africa: report PARIS, July 6, (APP/AFP) – The costs of diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa could double to almost $60 billion annually just 13 years from now, as obesity fuels an explosion of the disease, a report said Thursday. In 2015, the overall diabetes cost in the region was nearly $20 […]
International News
Diabetes taking growing toll on Africa: report PARIS, July 6, (APP/AFP) – The costs of diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa could double to almost $60 billion annually just 13 years from now, as obesity fuels an explosion of the disease, a report said Thursday. In 2015, the overall diabetes cost in the region was nearly $20 billion (18 billion euros), or 1.2 percent of total economic production, according to research published by The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. This included medication and hospital stays, and loss of labour productivity due to illness or death. About half of all treatment costs were paid for by patients themselves. “We estimate that the total cost will increase to between $35.33 billion (1.1 percent of GDP) and $59.32 billion (1.8 percent of GDP) by 2030,” said the report compiled by more than 70 experts from around the world. The rise of Type 2 or adult-onset diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa has been fuelled by growing disposable income to spend on junk food, the shift to a more sedentary urban lifestyle, population growth and population ageing as healthcare improves. The number of adults in the region classified as overweight increased from 28 million in 1980 to 127 million in 2015. While in 1990, HIV/AIDS, diarrhoea, malaria and children’s diseases were among the region’s leading causes of death, today they are being replaced by heart disease. “Diabetes and its complications have the potential to reverse some of the health gains seen in sub-Saharan Africa in recent years — overwhelming the region’s health system and crippling patients’ personal finances as they pay for their own healthcare,” a statement said. Today, only about half of diabetes sufferers in the region know they have the disease, and just one in ten receives the necessary drugs. “In its current state, sub-Saharan Africa is not at all prepared for the increasing burden of diabetes caused by rapid, ongoing societal transitions,” said lead author Rifat Atun of Harvard University. Diabetes is a lifelong disorder that causes blood-sugar levels to be too high. Untreated, it can cause blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks and stroke.
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Mexico shootout leaves at least 15 dead
MEXICO CITY, July 6 (APP/AFP): At least 15 people died Wednesday in a huge shootout between police and two rival drug gangs in northern Mexico, authorities said. The pre-dawn battle near the remote town of Las Varas started as a firefight between rival drug trafficking gangs, then escalated when police arrived, said Eduardo Esparza of […]
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Italy finally makes torture illegal
ROME, July 6 (APP/AFP): Italian lawmakers on Wednesday finally passed a bill making torture a crime under national law, after years of parliamentary back-and-forth. Rome signed the UN Convention Against Torture in 1984 but had never transferred it into national legislation. Lawmakers on Wednesday passed a bill that makes torture punishable by four to 10 […]
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Check it out: a baby pygmy hippo
SANTIAGO, July 5, (APP/AFP) – Talk about a cute critter: a hippo small enough to fit in a pet cage. Unveiled to the press Wednesday at a zoo in Cile, it is a two-week-old, female, baby pygmy hippopotamus, as yet unnamed. The mother’s name is Coca and dad goes by Hipolito. They weigh about 250 […]
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Brazil president presents graft defense, denies bribery
BRASMLIA, July 5 (APP/AFP): Lawyers for Brazil’s President Michel Temer presented their defense Wednesday against corruption charges that threaten to drive him from office, denying allegations that he took a $150,000 bribe. They filed a written defense to a committee in Congress tasked with drawing up a recommendation on whether he should face trial over […]
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US congressman slammed in Poland for Auschwitz video
WARSAW, July 5 (APP/AFP): Poland’s chief rabbi on Wednesday condemned a US congressman for recording a video inside a gas chamber at the former Nazi-German death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, calling it inappropriate activity at a memorial site. “This is a place to be quiet. This is a place to meditate, to think — not a place […]