The Summerland Advocate-Messenger - Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community

Life expectancy is a measure commonly considered when it comes to the overall health of a population. In this day and age, when most of us think about which medical interventions are most important to increase life expectancy, we probably think about things like treatment of cancer, interventions to treat heart attacks or surgeries for life-threatening illnesses. While those things are all important, their overall impact on a population’s life expectancy pales in comparison to the prevention of infectious disease.

Average life expectancy around the world has doubled in the last 200 years,...