There is no guarantee that life expectancy will keep on increasing. HIV/AIDS led to a sudden plunge in life expectancy in several African countries that is rarely matched even in war. Zimbabwe and Botswana lost more than fifteen years in life expectancy. In the years after the planned economy collapsed, life expectancy in Russia fell by five years. On the other hand, life expectancy in Africa is now seven years higher than it was before HIV/AIDS took its toll, and life expectancy in Russia is now higher than it ever was under communism, so there is a case to be made that life expectancy moves
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