Scaling up Non-Communicable Disease Control: Lessons to be learnt from the Infectious Disease paradigm in Kenya

Abstract

Non-communicable diseases (NCD) are emerging as the leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally, with the greatest rise in incidence of cardiovascular disease cases observed in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is in addition to the heavy burden of infectious diseases already present in this setting.

Describing the cross-cutting epidemiology of NCDs and infectious diseases with focus on the interaction between tuberculosis and diabetes mellitus, HIV and cardiovascular disease, HIV and cervical cancer as well as assessing the disparities in funding and service delivery systems between NCDs and infectious diseases; we review this rising double burden of infectious and non-infectious diseases and propose four lessons that can be learnt from the HIV response and adapted to inform the scale up of NCD control in Kenya which are also applicable in other African countries.