This flash edition summarizes the results of different studies on effect of adults’ death at active age in rural households. This study includes Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Zambia, and uses national representative households’ survey data, in order to provide some useful guidelines for efficient priority setting and key policy development, in the effort for mitigation of rural adult death effects. The main findings are: 1) the incidence of adult death at active age caused by illness is a good proxy for incidence of death related to HIV/AIDS; 2) in 4 out of 5 studied countries, most of the adults who died at active age are not household heads or their spouses, and hence, they are not likely to be the main providers of households’ livelihood; 3) in Kenya, Malawi and Rwanda, the HIV infected adults who recently died in rural areas, seems not to be related to high income and education; 4) the analysis of household composition shows that the affected households do not seem to have less active adult labor availability than the non-affected households. 5) The use of homogeny concept of affected households, especially in directed relief, technology development and other programs or policies is questionable; 6) the heterogeneity in the indicators of well-being after the death and in which extent the effects of adult mortality are translated into crop production and household income, has important implications in policy development.