Lifesavers

The things that saved the most lives

One page per invention or discovery that pushed death back at a scale that is hard to picture. Every number here is quoted from the source that measured it, linked underneath.

01 Vaccines Vaccination is the single biggest lifesaver in the history of medicine, credited with about 154 million lives in 50 years, most of them infants. Edward Jenner proved the principle in 1796 · 1796, then scaled from 1974 154 million saved
02 Smallpox eradication Smallpox killed about 300 million people in the 20th century alone, and in 1980 became the first human disease ever deliberately wiped from the Earth. Edward Jenner (1796 vaccine) · eradicated 1980 300 million saved
03 Clean water Filtering and chlorinating city water was responsible for about 43 percent of the fall in urban death rates in early 20th-century America, and three-quarters of the drop in infant deaths. Municipal sand filtration and chlorination, adopted across US and European cities in the early 1900s. · 1900s ≈43% saved
04 Synthetic fertilizer Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, pulled from thin air by the Haber-Bosch process, now feeds roughly half of everyone alive. Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch developed the process to make ammonia (1909 to 1913). · 1909 ≈half the world saved
05 Oral rehydration therapy A mixture of water, salt and sugar that costs pennies has saved more than 70 million children from dying of dehydration. Developed in the 1960s and proven in the field in South Asia · 1960s to 1970s 70 million saved
06 The measles vaccine The measles vaccine averted nearly 59 million deaths in a single generation, more than any other vaccine in that span. John Enders and Thomas Peebles isolated the measles virus and developed the first vaccine, licensed in 1963. · 1963 59 million saved
07 Insecticide-treated bed nets A treated mesh net over a bed turned out to be the single biggest reason malaria retreated across Africa, behind most of an estimated 663 million cases averted. Bed nets are ancient · 1980s onward 68% of 663 million cases saved
08 The polio vaccine The polio vaccine has cut cases of the paralysing virus by more than 99% since 1988, and more than 20 million people can walk today who would otherwise have been paralysed. Jonas Salk developed the first (injected) vaccine in 1955 · 1955 20 million saved
09 Insulin Before 1922 a child diagnosed with type 1 diabetes had months to live; the discovery of insulin turned an automatic death sentence into a manageable condition. Frederick Banting and Charles Best, with James Collip and J.J.R. Macleod, at the University of Toronto. · 1921 to 1922 beyond counting
10 Penicillin and antibiotics A mould spotted on a messy lab plate in 1928 became penicillin, the first antibiotic, and turned infections that routinely killed into problems a pill could solve. Alexander Fleming observed the effect in 1928 · 1928 beyond counting
11 Tuberculosis treatment Finding and treating tuberculosis has saved an estimated 83 million lives since 2000, turning the disease that has killed more people than any other infection into one a course of antibiotics can cure. Robert Koch identified the bacterium behind the disease in 1882 · 1882 (cause), 1943 (first cure) 83 million saved
12 Seat belts Seat belts saved an estimated 374,276 lives on American roads from 1975 to 2017, and the design that did most of that work, the three-point belt, was patented in 1959 and then handed to every other carmaker for free. Nils Bohlin, a Swedish engineer at Volvo, designed the modern three-point seat belt and introduced it in 1959. Volvo left the design open so any manufacturer could use it. · 1959 374,276 saved
13 HIV treatment Antiretroviral therapy turned an HIV diagnosis from a near-certain death sentence into a manageable condition, and helped cut annual AIDS-related deaths by about 74% from their 2004 peak. The first antiretroviral drug, AZT (zidovudine), was approved in 1987 · 1987, then combination therapy from 1996 ≈74% saved
14 Tobacco control Turning a whole society against cigarettes is estimated to have avoided about 8 million premature deaths in the United States alone between 1964 and 2012. No single inventor: launched by the 1964 US Surgeon General's report on smoking · 1964 onward 8 million saved
15 Family planning Letting women choose whether and when to have children averted an estimated 272,040 maternal deaths in one year, a 44 percent drop in the toll of pregnancy and childbirth. The first birth-control pill arrived in 1960 (Pincus, Rock and Chang, championed by Margaret Sanger and Katharine McCormick) · 1960 onward 272,040 saved
16 Breastfeeding Bringing breastfeeding close to universal could prevent about 820,000 child deaths every year, roughly one in eight of all deaths under the age of five. No inventor: breastfeeding is as old as humanity. Its power as a public-health intervention was quantified by modern research, above all The Lancet's 2016 breastfeeding series. · ancient; quantified 2016 820,000 saved
17 Vitamin A supplementation Two cheap doses of vitamin A a year cut a young child's overall risk of dying by about 12%, one of the best-evidenced nutrition measures in child health. Vitamin A was identified in 1913 · 1913; child-survival trials from the 1980s 12% saved
18 The tetanus vaccine Vaccinating mothers against tetanus, together with clean birth practices, cut deaths of newborns from tetanus by about 84% in two decades. The tetanus toxoid vaccine was developed in 1924 by Pierre Descombey · 1924; elimination drive from 1989 84% saved
19 The rotavirus vaccine The rotavirus vaccine, introduced in 2006, prevents the severe diarrhoea that once killed hundreds of thousands of children a year, an estimated 28,900 of them in 2016 alone. An early rotavirus vaccine was withdrawn in 1999 over a safety signal · 2006 28,900 saved
20 Hib and pneumococcal vaccines Two vaccines against the bacteria behind most child pneumonia and meningitis, Hib and pneumococcus, saved an estimated 1.45 million young lives between 2000 and 2015. The first Hib conjugate vaccine was licensed in 1987 · 1987 (Hib), 2000 (pneumococcal) 1.45 million saved
21 Kangaroo mother care Carrying a small or premature baby skin-to-skin, and starting right after birth, could save up to 150,000 more newborns every year, with no incubator required. Kangaroo mother care was devised in 1978 by paediatrician Edgar Rey Sanabria in Bogota, Colombia, as a response to overcrowded incubators. · 1978 150,000 saved
22 Blood transfusion Safe blood transfusion turned bleeding to death into a survivable emergency, and it quietly underpins modern surgery, childbirth, cancer care and trauma medicine. Karl Landsteiner discovered the ABO blood groups in 1901, which made transfusion safe · 1901 (blood groups), then blood banking beyond counting
23 Iodized salt Adding a trace of iodine to table salt has prevented an estimated 720 million cases of iodine deficiency disorders worldwide since 1993, protecting brain development in millions of infants. David Marine linked iodine to goiter prevention · 1922, then scaled through the 20th century 720 million saved
24 Folic acid fortification Mixing a small, mandated dose of folic acid into flour and grain products has prevented an estimated 1,326 neural tube defect-affected births a year in the United States since 1998. British epidemiologist Nicholas Wald's 1991 trial showed folic acid prevents neural tube defects · 1991, mandated in the US from 1998 1,326 saved
25 Magnesium sulfate for eclampsia Magnesium sulfate given to women with pre-eclampsia cut their risk of eclampsia by 58% in the largest trial ever conducted on the drug, and probably lowered the risk of maternal death as well. No single inventor. Magnesium sulfate had been used for eclampsia since the early 1900s on the strength of small, inconclusive trials · 2002 58% saved
26 Uterotonics for postpartum hemorrhage When health workers measure bleeding after childbirth with a simple collection drape and respond with a bundle of treatments built around a uterotonic drug, severe bleeding falls by 60% compared with the usual, slower response. No single inventor. Oxytocin was first synthesized in the 1950s · 2023 60% saved
27 The HPV vaccine The HPV vaccine is linked to around 199 fewer cervical cancer deaths in England alone through 2024, and to zero cervical cancer deaths among vaccinated women in their early twenties, where dozens would once have been expected. Harald zur Hausen identified HPV as the cause of cervical cancer, work that won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine · 2006, routine vaccination in England from 2008 199 saved
28 The hepatitis B vaccine Hepatitis B vaccination has averted an estimated 7 million deaths among children born between 1990 and 2014 across the Western Pacific alone, the region hit hardest by the disease. No single inventor. The first hepatitis B vaccine, made from purified virus particles taken from human blood plasma, was licensed in 1981 · 1981, then recombinant from 1986 7 million saved
29 The meningitis A vaccine MenAfriVac all but eliminated the meningitis A epidemics that used to sweep Africa's meningitis belt: in fully vaccinated populations, confirmed cases fell by more than 99%. Developed by the Meningitis Vaccine Project, a partnership between the World Health Organization and the nonprofit PATH, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation · 2010 more than 99% saved

Figures are quoted from the source that measured them, linked on each page. Where no honest number exists, the entry says so rather than invent one.

Progress like this happens every day.