Question: If we didn't have the technology that we have today would we be dying from little illnesses like colds and sickness bugs?

Laurence Perreault Levasseur answered on 23 Jun 2014:

Yes, absolutely. Things like vaccines are saving the lives and preventing disabilities of millions of people around the planet. Things like antibiotics make it possible to survive illnesses and injuries that would have been deadly 150 years ago. Without antibiotics, I would probably have died at least 15 times by now (!!!). Without antibiotics, even the simplest surgery could end up being life threatening due to post-surgeries infections (things that have nothing to do with the reason why you had the surgery, but bacterias can end up infecting the wound or attacking you because you are weaker after a surgery)

But technology isn’t the only factor in decided how deadly a disease is. During renaissance, things like colds and the flu were not too bad for Europeans, who had some internal immunities to combat them because they had been exposed to them for many decades. But when Europeans arrived in America, these diseases decimated almost all of the native populations because they had never been exposed to them.

Education is also a MAJOR factor into deciding how threatening a ‘little’ illness is. The example Aimee is giving is a perfect example of that. There isn’t much technology involved in salt+sugar and water, and most people has access to those things, but without knowing what to do, a lot of people die from it.