The link below is to an article that compares the leading causes of death in the U.S. in 1900 and recently (2010). Granted this may be getting a little off topic, but it's close enough, I think, to offer an interesting perspective on the topic of this thread.
For example, from the article:
"Cancer is now a leading cause of death in the U.S. In 1900, because of the lack of medical technology, it accounted for only a small portion of reported deaths.""… deaths from infectious diseases have gone way down compared to 1900, while the proportion of people dying from cancer has tripled.""Heart disease accounted for a large portion of deaths in 1900, and that's still the case today. Overall, though, life spans are increasing."The article also gives a very interesting chart comparing leading causes of death in 1900 versus the leading causes in 2010. The one thing that really stands out between the two charts, and it's mentioned above, is the
enormous progress made during the past century in the control of fatal infectious diseases. But there are other interesting differences as well between the charts.
www.businessinsider.com/leading-causes-of-death-in-1900-and-today-2014-6