Vaccines. I remember the days of polio epidemics every summer, when every parent (including mine) lived in terror of their child dying or being permanently crippled. My parents had already lost one child to pneumonia, so you better believe I was at the head of the line for the shots. 🙂
And then there’s smallpox, which up until a century ago was still killing millions in the most gruesome way possible. Even after developed countries vaccinated everyone there it still hung on in poorer parts of the world until the 1970s.
Measles, mumps and whooping cough (pertussis). Back in the 1930s My poor older sister had all three at once and wound up in an isolation room in the hospital. Now – almost unheard of.
Pneumonia vaccine – for old people like me. Pneumonia was – and to some extent still us – a major killer of older people.
Flu – in most years either you won’t get sick at all or it will be much milder.
I agree with all those who mention all the advances in health and sanitation, that save lives every day.
This is a great thread and the responses are funny and thought-provoking at the same time.