---
title: "Melanie's Marvelous Measles"
chunk: 2/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanie's_Marvelous_Measles"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:37:45.381716+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

== Reception ==
Although the book was first published in 2012, it received considerable attention after the Disneyland measles outbreak began in December 2014, which led to many people looking for the book in order to criticise it.
The book has been criticised because measles is responsible for thousands of deaths every year.
Most reviews have been negative: for example, the president of the Australian Medical Association, Steve Hambleton, said: "Last time I saw a kid with measles with the rash they were carried into the surgery and the child looked like a rag doll. The mother was terrified. It's still fatal. About one in 10,000 children will die because of encephalitis". "Even in 'industrialised countries', measles can cause encephalitis, seizures, blindness, heart and nervous system disorders, and (rarely) death". Dr. David Gorski, a breast cancer surgeon who writes frequently against alternative medicine and the anti-vaccine movement, writes: "I'm sure children with whooping cough who are coughing so hard that they can't catch their breath for hours on end, with haemophilus influenzae type B who develop pneumonia or meningitis, with polio who develop paralysis, or with measles who develop pneumonia or subacute sclerosing panencephalitis will feel happy to 'embrace childhood disease', at least those who don't end up dead, who can't embrace anything other than the grave." William Sears says: "Complications of the disease include pneumonia and encephalitis, swelling of the brain, that can result in deafness or mental retardation. I've seen a case of measles encephalitis and it's not pretty. There's nothing awesome about it at all".
Quite a few of the reviews contain statistics of illnesses in recent years. Sears states that it is very easy to catch measles: "Before the vaccine that eradicated the disease from this country by 2000, 'hundreds of thousands of kids got measles every year'... The CDC claims that, if exposed, 90% of unvaccinated people who come in contact with an infected person will get the disease. 'And for 1 out of every 1,000 children who contract it, the disease is fatal.'" "The World Health Organization says measles is 'one of the leading causes of death among young children even though a safe and cost-effective vaccine is available'. There are about 140,000 deaths a year, mostly in poor countries. In Australia measles deaths are now rare because the disease has been controlled though widespread vaccination. When it does occur, the danger comes from complications such as pneumonia and encephalitis. Dr. Hambleton said while "there were occasional adverse reactions to the vaccination, it was far more dangerous to actually experience the disease." In Pakistan, the World Health Organization reported 64 deaths from measles in 2011 and 306 deaths in 2012. "Many Pakistanis", reported Al Jazeera, "especially in rural areas, view vaccination campaigns with suspicion as a western plot to sterilize Muslims."
David Gorski states that this clearly is an anti-vaccine book aimed at children who are told to "embrace childhood disease", eat healthy, and get plenty of sleep and sunshine. He feels that the anti-vaccine parents are hiding their children in the herd of vaccinated children and that if these parents had experienced polio and smallpox like "our grandparents had", they would not be so eager to refute vaccinations now. He thinks that Messenger's belief that her first child's death (from an unreported cause) was vaccine related, and that her three younger children are healthy because they are not vaccinated, is just confirmation bias, and that statements from Messenger like, "My unvaccinated children are alive and well and my vaccinated child is dead! That's what I know and live with every day" are difficult to combat with numbers, but it is still important to keep trying.
Gorski continues: "The death of a single child, whatever the cause, is a tragedy. If we want to see a lot more of these tragedies, all we have to do is to be complacent and let the vaccination rate fall too far below herd enormity. [sic]"
Messenger has said she was trying to give parents and children more knowledge. "Only people who are not in favour of a free press or free speech would [want it banned]", she said. "Natural health says that measles is a good thing for a reasonably healthy child to have". The Australian Vaccination-Skeptics Network (AVN) stated on their webpage that Messenger was "concerned that the public are being misled by medical professionals. They are trying to say that vaccination is safe and effective and it is neither one of those things".
The AVN praises the book for its "beautiful" illustrations, and "simple, colourful text". It discusses not only the fact that measles is usually benign in healthy, well-nourished children, but the importance of proper nutrition including vitamin A from orange fruits and vegetables".

=== Roald Dahl book ===
Another reason for the criticism is because the book's title resembles that of the book George's Marvellous Medicine, by Roald Dahl, who was a strong proponent of vaccination. Dahl's daughter, Olivia, died from measles in 1962 and he later wrote an account of her death.
One reviewer commented that "I can only assume the author Stephanie Messenger was unaware of the incredibly offensive nature of the title".