Just as in the rest of the world, the life expectancy of East Africa is increasing. In 2017 the life expectancy of 57 in Somalia and South Sudan was the lowest. The highest life expectancy was 75 in Mauritius. In figure 1 the mean life expectancy of East Africa over time (1950-2100) is shown. Reasons for the increase in life expectancy are for instance improvements in child survival, malaria control and higher access for HIV treatment.
Besides life-expectancy there are some other measures to measure health. One of these is the under-five-mortality. This is the number of children younger than five years that die per 1000 live births in one year. In 2018 Seychelles had the lowest under-five-mortality -15 per 1000 live births – this is quite logical because it is the second highest country in life expectancy in East Africa. The highest under-five-mortality in 2018 was in Somalia, 122 per 1000 live births. Over the years the under-five-mortality is decreasing.
Because of diseases people do not only lose life years, but also live years in disability. Also poor health can give financial problems, because of income spent on health care instead other basic needs as food and housing. The health issues of East Africa will be discussed in several blog posts.
Sources used:
– https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN?locations=KE-BI-KM-DJ-ER-ET-MG-MW-MU-MZ-RW-SC-SO-TZ-ZM-ZW&view=chart
– https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/19-05-2016-life-expectancy-increased-by-5-years-since-2000-but-health-inequalities-persist
– https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.DYN.MORT?locations=KE-BI-KM-DJ-ER-ET-MG-MW-MU-MZ-RW-SC-SO-TZ-ZM-ZW
East Africa 
Miyase Cetin posted this comment on 22 november 2019 14:!6. Because we moved the blog post to another place, the comment disappeared. That’s why we (the authors of this blog) place it again.
“Hi,
Interesting blog post about education as an influencing factor of health! You mentioned in the first paragraph that from some countries data about education is not available and gave as an example Somalia. But in Figure 1, the percentage of children from Somalia that never have been to school is given, so maybe you mean another country? Or do you mean that more accurate data is missing about Somalia?
Further, it is good to read about the fact that the under-five-mortality is decreasing! But what is the reason for this? It would be nice to add that too. Keep going!
Miyase Cetin”
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Dear Miyase,
Good questions! The increase in life expectancy and the decrease in under-5-mortality are related to each other. So when the under-5-mortality decreases, the life expectancy increases. The reasons for decrease in under-5-mortality are thus similar to the reasons of increase in life expectancy. These reasons are mentioned in the blog post and are improvements in child survival, malaria control and access to HIV treatment.
Kind regards,
Jinke, Joanne, Marieke, Thom and Imke
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