Gouda HN, Charlson F, Sorsdahl K, et al. - Despite that infectious diseases continue to dominate the burden of disease in sub-Saharan Africa, a demographic transition is undergoing in countries in this region leading to increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Researchers sought to inform health system responses to these changing patterns of disease via evaluating changes in the burden of NCDs in sub-Saharan Africa from 1990 to 2017. They analyzed data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 and identified an increase in all-age total DALYs due to NCDs by 67·0% between 1990 (90·6 million) and 2017 (151·3 million). This indicated an increase in the proportion of total DALYs attributable to NCDs (from 18·6% to 29·8% of the total burden). Although population growth and aging can explain most of this increase, the age-standardized DALY rate due to NCDs in 2017 was almost equivalent to that of communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional diseases. Cardiovascular diseases were identified to be the second leading cause of NCD burden in 2017, after the group of disorders categorized as other NCDs. Neoplasms, mental disorders, and digestive diseases followed these categories of diseases. These observations suggest an increasing challenge posed by NCDs in sub-Saharan Africa for health systems, which have to date largely focused on tackling infectious diseases and maternal, neonatal, and child deaths.