Stigma, lack of treatment and disproportionate rise of the disease in women draws comparisons with HIV epidemic

An alarming rise in obesity in Africa has been compared with the HIV epidemic, with stigma and lack of treatment having a disproportionate impact on women.

Almost half of women in Africa will be obese or overweight by the end of the decade, according to a recent study by the World Obesity Federation.

While people in richer countries embrace the use of weight loss jabs to slim, few have any confidence that the groundbreaking medicines will be available in sub-Saharan Africa in the near future.

And treatment for the host of diseases that accompany obesity, including diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure, can be equally hard to access.

Dr Nomathemba Chandiwana, who specialises in obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs), is chief scientific officer at the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation in South Africa.

“Obesity feels like HIV but more compressed,” she said. “We’ve got a disease we don’t quite understand, it’s there, we’re not doing much about it. The drugs are kind of there, but not available. Stigma is also an issue. So you can make a lot of parallels.”

In another similarity between the conditions on the African continent, women are more likely than men to be infected with HIV. And while 25% of men in Africa are overweight or obese, for women the figure is 40%. In most other world regions the gap is much smaller, or reversed.

And the trend is accelerating. While 45% of women in Africa will be overweight or obese by 2030, for men the figure is 26%, according to the World Obesity Atlas.