Nairobi — City life and its modern trappings have brought bad habits to developing African nations that will see more die of chronic illness than infectious diseases by 2030, a study showed on Tuesday. A World Health Organisation (WHO) survey of 33 countries has shown that most adults in Africa have at least one risk factor increasing their chance of developing deadly lifestyle diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. These include smoking, harmful use of alcohol, a poor diet which does not include the recommended five servings of fruit and vegetables a day, and low levels of physical activity. Report author Abdikamal Alisalad told AFP that the level of unhealthy habits in many African nations had come as a shock. "We were surprised because we thought we would not see this kind of situation currently. We were expecting it maybe 30 or 40 years from now," he said.
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