It’s not a virus. Its an infection. It is treated with antibiotics. Epidemics were still common in some countries until the invention of antibiotics during the middle of the 20th cenutry. A lot of conditions that could be fatal ceased to be problems when antibiotics came along (e.g. “strep” and tuberculosis).
Whenever anyone talks about the good old days, remind them they probably would have died before reaching adulthood of something that not not result in you missing much school or work today.