system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why doesn't diarrhea kill us when it used to be so fatal?

When we get diarrhea, we generally don't take medicine for it & we don't die from it. Why was diarrhea so fatal back in the day?
gpt
It wasn't diarrhea that was fatal. Dysentery and other illnesses whose symptoms include diarrhea were fatal. In modern days, most cases of diarrhea are symptoms of mild digestive irritation, poisoning, or psychosomatic disorders. The lethal cases you refer to from the past were symptoms of much more serious afflictions.

TLDR: diarrhea is not an affliction, it's a symptom. In modern days, most of its causes are not lethal. In recorded history, its causes have been known to kill people.