Chronic kidney disease in sub-Saharan Africa

Infectious diseases—led by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria—are still the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa; however, the contribution of non-communicable diseases to morbidity and mortality in the region has grown over the past 30 years. These emerging non-communicable diseases in Africa have been attributed at least in part to the improving longevity, urbanisation, and modernisation of cultures in the region. Cardiometabolic diseases have been suggested to be the leading contributor to deaths due to non-communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa,1 with high and rapidly increasing incidences of these cardiometabolic diseases reported across diverse settings in the region.