With the recent release of a provocative children's book entitled Melanie's Marvelous Measles, a debate has ensued regarding the effectiveness and wisdom surrounding measles vaccinations.  When I first heard about the book, I went to Amazon to order a copy for myself.  The amount of negative reviews was staggering.  People were claiming that the information was "dangerous", "harmful" and "ill-informed".  Some were even calling for the book to be banned.  It took me a few minutes to read it from cover to cover.  Rather than critique the book, which has already been done quite eloquently by others, I would like to talk about the widespread fear surrounding measles and the misinformation regarding the vaccine. 

Mainstream medicine tells us that the hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes liver cancer which is why it is so necessary for US newborns to be vaccinated within hours of birth.  We are told that the human papillomavirus (HPV), which is supposedly so prevalent in our population, causes cervical cancer which is why there is such a push to vaccinate girls and boys in the US as early as 9 years old. Let's not forget about Simian Virus 40 (SV40) which is known to have contaminated polio vaccines and is associated with a wide variety of human cancers.  Conventional wisdom tells us that viruses cause cancer.  But is this true? Let's investigate the story further.

The first recorded cases of HBV infection occurred following the administration of the smallpox vaccine containing human lymph to shipyard workers in Germany in 1883. HBV is transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids.  It is estimated that over 2 billion people worldwide have been infected and that approximately 350 million are chronic carriers.  Chronic HBV infection is believed to cause up to 80% of all hepatocellular carcinomas.  Sounds scary right?  But when you look deeper you find that, in the US, HBV is found predominantly in adults who are either I.V. drug users or engaging in high-risk sexual behavior.