Anti-Formula Campaign In Sub-Saharan Africa (2)
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(referring to: The Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report)
This is a very interesting and at face value a considerate editorial.
However, a few questions have not been asked or tackled here.
To begin with: When do we identify who is and who isn't HIV positive?
Are the formula manufacturers going to finance all antenatal screen-
ing of pregnant women or is that going to be left to the respective
governments? Furthermore, what is the antenatal attendance in these
countries? Do the companies know? Or are they going to wait at chil-
dren's hospitals for the children to report in sick and then "chari-
tably" present them with the gifts of unwanted formula?
Yes, breastfeeding is an important route of transmission, but is it
the primary mode of mother-to-child transmission? Should we in any
case be tackling breastfeeding or should we be putting efforts at
other areas and then looking at breastfeeding as a secondary strat-
egy? Why are we afraid of saying one should not attempt to have a
baby if they are HIV positive because you risk infecting that child?
In various countries if a woman is raped by a man who is HIV positive
there is an outcry and I think the offence is viewed as more severe
than rape by somebody HIV negative as this is viewed as the deliber-
ate infection of an innocent party. Isn't it the same that one is
"deliberately infecting" an innocent child? Or is it that the differ-
ence is different?
Why did the code come into being anyway? Why are we having Seattle,
London and recently Nice? Multinationals will never be philanthropic?
Children are not dying of AIDS because they are being breastfed but
they are dying because somebody wants to have a child and nobody has
been brave enough to tell them to stop infecting the child before
they are conceived!!
Thomas More Chaita
mailto:tomche@liverpool.ac.uk
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