Obesity is not your fault nor just for the affluent - Prof Carel le Roux, World-leading SA Diabetes expert

A recent Lancet study reveals that over one billion people worldwide are living with obesity, equating to one in eight individuals. In South Africa, where obesity is likened to a tsunami or epidemic, 43% of adults were overweight in 2022, with a significant portion of women, men, and children with weight-related issues. Professor Carel le Roux, a global authority on obesity and diabetes from South Africa, who is the Chair of Experimental Pathology at University College Dublin, told Biznews in an interview that there has been a shift in treating obesity as a disease rather than a personal failing. Regarding semaglutide drugs for the treatment of obesity, he said they are able to turn back the clock on Type 2 diabetes, but he cautions against viewing them as mere weight loss aids. “You’re going to regain all that weight, probably be worse off after you have stopped the treatment than before you started,” he said. For people with obesity and diabetes, it is a lifelong treatment. Referring to the cost of obesity drug treatment in South Africa, he said the cost of the drugs will fall over time as it happened with HIV treatment.