Smallpox in Chad

[Mortblanc]

It pains me deeply to have to agree with HP on any subject but in this instance I have to throw in with his view fully.

When my grandfather was born life expectancy was 53. When my dad was born it was up to 70. When I was born it was near 80 and my son has a life expectancy of 100.

One need only look at a chart of the life expectancy of the nations of the world to realize what modern medicine has done. I was talking to a man from Tanzania a couple of weeks ago who has moved to a "first world nation". He had just celebrated his 50th birthday and he was thrilled. He was the first person in his family to live to 50 years! Why? Because he had access to modern medicines.

Because of modern medicines WW2 was the first war where fewer people died of infectious disease than battle wounds. Up till then more than half the deaths in war were germ related and not combat related.

The year I was born the greatest killer in my nation was pneumonia, I am now inoculated to prevent that disease along with dozens of other ailments that once killed half the population before their first birthday and dropped old folks in their tracks.

That improvement was not due to more frequent use of home remedies, herbal potions and chanting incantations. It was through applied use of modern medicines.

I am alive today due to medical procedures now considered routine treatments. 40 years ago I would have died when I had my heart attack, or within a few short painful months. That heart attack was right at the 53 year old life expectancy of my granddad. Modern medicine has given me another 15 years added to the home remedy lifespan.

I am also sitting here pain free due to a back procedure on a spine no chiropractor would touch.

If what you had was fixed by what you did it was not very bad in the first place.