Then there are smallpox, tuberculosis, diphtheria, rheumatic fever, polio and influenza​—all still killers. Man has not ended disease!

But why is it, in spite of medical advances, that sickness persists? There are a number of reasons.

WHY MEDICINE HAS NOT STOPPED DISEASE

For one thing, medicine cannot completely eradicate all the minute organisms that cause disease. There are too many for man to try to control. But have not a number of diseases been stopped with vaccines? Yes, there have been some triumphs. But note what Peter Farb says in Ecology (1970):

“There are now vaccines that protect against polio, measles, smallpox, tetanus, cholera and numerous other dreaded diseases. However, these victories are largely illusions. They do not take into account the fact that the microbial organisms themselves are capable of extraordinarily rapid . . . changes, resulting in new strains resistant to man’s most potent drugs.”

Another thing: Science’s seeming successes have created a complacency in thousands of persons. An aura of overconfidence in medicine has appeared. Dr. John J. Witte of the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S.), cites an example: “I’m sure there are many young parents who are much less terrified of the ravages of polio than parents of a decade ago because they haven’t lived through epidemics or seen cases of polio.” As a result, he says, “polio could spread significantly if introduced into certain areas.”

The potential for massive epidemics, not just of polio, but of other seemingly conquered diseases in the “advanced countries” is very real.