They still don't have whooping cough under control today, so that is probably a bad example JX. I thought we are talking about childhood diseases here?
My youngest daughter had whooping cough at 6 weeks old, she survived and is a healthy, energetic, vibrant 22 year old with zero after effects. I took her to a GP who was also a homeopath, he gave me a homeopathic remedy for her.... it worked like a charm. There is no modern medicine cure for whooping cough, they will give you anti-biotics but they may as well give you a placebo... anti-biotics don't cure you of whooping cough.
I lived in Africa as a kid, I was given polio (oral from memory) and the small pox vaccine. If they were in existence today my choice of treatment would be homeopathy... a most unpopular choice to the uninitiated I know.
