A U.S.-sponsored mortality survey released late last year announced huge improvements in health across the country. Among the headlines, life expectancy in Afghanistan has increased by 20 years, just since 2004. USAID funded the study with a contribution from the United Nations Children's Fund. Officials say it provides the most accurate snapshot ever of health in Afghanistan. But the scale of improvement is so remarkable that experts, including several involved in the survey, worry the results are too good to be true. NPR's Quil Lawrence reports on the debate about the data. During three decades of war, Afghanistan remained a black hole of health information. A few studies looked at a small slice of the population and then extrapolated. The numbers horrified the world. Life expectancy in 2004 was measured at just 42 years, 25 percent of children did not survive until the age of 5. For every 100,000 deliveries, a staggering 1,600 women died in childbirth, the second-worst rate in the world. But last year's survey delivered shockingly good news. Afghan surveyors in all 34 provinces brought back data suggesting that life expectancy at birth is now 62 years. Child mortality under 5 dropped to 10 percent. Of 100,000 live births, the maternal mortality rate was down to 327.