Rwanda’s life expectancy up by 17 years, says report

Life expectancy of Rwandans has increased by almost 20 years in the last two decades, according to a recent World Health Organisation (WHO) report. The report, released last week, indicates that since 1990, life expectancy in the country has increased from 48 years to 65 years. This 17-year increase is the sixth highest leap in the world during that period. The study, titled “World Health Statistics,” has been published every year since 2005. It gathers and synthesises data from 194 countries on health indicators like mortality, life expectancy, illness and death from key diseases, and health service coverage. The average increase in life expectancy around the world was six years, according to the report. Rwanda’s increase is almost three times this rate. The life expectancy in the country is also three years more than the global average for low-income countries, the report says, and attributes this trend to the sharp drop in child mortality. Since 2000, the mortality rate for children under five has dropped from 182 per 100,000 children, to 55. This puts Rwanda on track to reach the millennium development goal of reducing the mortality of children under five by two-thirds within the next year. Dr Fidele Ngabo, the coordinator of maternal and child health at the Ministry of Health, told The New Times that Rwanda has reduced childhood mortality by using a few different tactics. One is tackling vaccine-preventable diseases. He said Rwanda has provided vaccination and prevention programmes for the most common killer diseases in children younger than five. These include malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia, Dr Ngabo said. “The government has also introduced multiple programmes to combat malnutrition in the country, including the 1,000 Days programme, which targets the nutritional health of pregnant and lactating mothers as well as children under two years old,” Dr Ngabo added. Training community health workers has also played a large role in reducing mortality rates. “These community health workers bring health services closer to the population,” he said, explaining that they treat malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia, as well as provide family planning drugs, vaccinations and HIV testing. The WHO report shows that the country still has room for improvement. In Rwanda, 70 per cent of years of life lost from early death are caused by diseases and conditions that relate to the Millennium Development Goals. However, the country is still on track to reach or has already reached many of these goals. Rwanda has already met the target of 90 per cent of the population being vaccinated for measles and the country has also met the target of reducing maternal mortality by three-quarters. The country is on track to meeting the target of 100 per cent of women receiving care from a skilled health professional at least once during pregnancy.

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Rwanda’s life expectancy up by 17 years, says report