I think the bump you're referring to is 1996. A World Bank sourced Life Expectancy chart[1] seems to indicate problems in both South Africa in general and the economic depression in Russia coincide roughly with that time period.
//edit: Events in Korea, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Congo caused dips as well. I guess the next question (and an interesting one) would be if there was a human condition of some sort that unified these different situations.
It's actually a bump around 1981 or so, and then a sharp decline, followed by a resurgence in 1985.
It seems to occur in the "Heart and Circulatory Disease" category.
I'm not sure what this translates to specifically, but if they are classifying AIDS deaths as a "circulatory disease" and not pneumonia, it could be that.
There was also a severe famine in Africa in the 80's. Do you die of a heart attack if you are starving? Not sure.
It could also just be the pattern of heart disease/healthy living/research was playing out... notice that afterwards, the category accounts for decreasing amounts of death.
