The WEF debate which dealt with ‘€œAfrica’€™s hidden epidemic’€ warned that while AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria had been the most visible ravagers of the African continent, while the effect of non-communicable diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes, was increasing at an alarming rate.

These diseases, while often easily preventable, are poised to become the main cause of death in Africa in the coming decades and still remain largely ignored.

‘€œHIV/AIDS, malaria and TB are a very big problem, but we are in danger of forgetting these communicable diseases,’€ South Africa’€™s health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi told the meeting.

He said there was an underlying ‘€œdeathly transition’€ as far as communicable diseases and non-communicable diseases go. ‘€œThe developing world is used to dealing with communicable diseases,’€ said Motsoaledi, intimating that many health workers would find it challenging to diagnose non-communicable diseases.

‘€œWhile working in Bushbuckridge when I was a doctor, if someone presents with fever you would immediately send them for a malaria smear. There was no ways we would miss malaria, but very rich people would return to their homes in Johannesburg from malaria areas and die because they were misdiagnosed,’€ he recalled.

Nossel said the challenge lay in getting CEOs and human resources directors to take the known preventative measures for non-communicable diseases seriously.

‘€œThe challenge for us is to translate it into economic terms for them otherwise they will not invest in wellness programmes,’€ he said.

Nossel warned that indicators were showing that countries such as South Africa and Brazil, now suffering a significant burden of HIV and TB, would face a significant burden of diseases such as cancer and diabetes by 2050.

‘€œIt will be at the current levels of HIV and AIDS and it will significantly impact on people who are meant to be employed as well as the consumer target markets,’€ warned Nossel.

Motsoaledi said a big part of the problem was that there were no longer regular exercise sessions in schools. ‘€œWe have been so focused on building classrooms that we forgot about the sports facilities. You tend to use the little money you get to build classrooms rather than developing sports fields,’€ he said.