This is a sad story: Dahl's daughter Olivia, to whom he had dedicated James and the Giant Peach and The BFG (I remember reading both of those to my kids when they were little) died at the age of 12 of measles encephalitis. He wrote a short piece urging everyone to immunize their children 20 years later, after a reliable vaccine had been developed.
We've benefited in these recent years from good medicine that prevents serious childhood diseases. It wasn't that long ago that children were dying fairly often from illnesses that nowadays parents cavalierly expose their children to in 'exposure parties', rather than using good medicine.
(via Goldacre)
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