Francistown registers sharp rise in lifestyle diseases

It identifies hypertension as the most dominant in the city, accounting for more than two-thirds of all documented NCD cases during the reporting period. Hypertension cases increased sharply from 239 in the previous quarter to 616 cases in the first quarter of the year, representing an increase of 377 cases.

The city council attributed the growing burden of NCDs largely to lifestyle-related behaviours. These include tobacco use, unhealthy diets, consumption of energy drinks, and ultra-processed foods high in sugar, physical inactivity and harmful alcohol use.