Friday March 29th, 2024
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Life Expectancy in Egypt Cut by 3 Months Since Arab Spring

Since the revolution the average Egyptian's lack of access to healthcare and services has lead to a marked shortening of their lives.

Staff Writer

The Arab Spring and the resulting fallout throughout most of the region saw the promised revolutionary peace and prosperity replaced with war, extremism, and poverty. Now, medical expert's research, published in The Lancet Global Health Journal, quantifies the impact that the failed revolutions across the region have had on the population's life expectancy. 

Between 2010 and 2013, Egyptians, along with citizens of Yemen and Tunisia, lost about three months of their average life expectancy. After decades of advances made in health and civil services, a regression has been made apparent since instability wracked the region. 
 
Ali Mokdad, of the University of Washington, who headed the research, said, "Life expectancy decline is traditionally regarded as a sign that the health and social systems are failing. The fact that this is happening in several countries indicates there is an immediate need to invest in healthcare systems."
 
Syria, with more than a quarter of a million dead and at least 11 million displaced since civil war engulfed the country, has seen its average life expectancy drop by a staggering six years.