The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday called on African countries to make regulations and behavioral changes to fight non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
Patrick Kabore, a representative of WHO's regional office for East and Southern Africa, presented a report at the Pan-African Parliament on fighting the NCDs and risk factors.
He said that there was a 30-percent increase in the NCDs in Africa between 2005 and 2015.
The NCDs are diseases that are not directly transmissible from one person to another, such as Parkinson's disease, autoimmune diseases, strokes, heart diseases, cancers, diabetes and chronic kidney disease.
"These diseases have a negative effect on the economic development of various countries in the continent by lessening productivity," he said. "Globalization, urbanization, aging population, patterns of consumption including having unbalanced diet are risk factors contributing to NCDs."
He suggested African countries to adopt legislation to prohibit smoking in public places and abuse of alcohol, because alcohol, cigarettes and drugs contribute to the deaths related to the NCDs.
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