South Africa Government moves to treat HIV+ mothers (2)
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Dear Colleagues,
The article is sad news. An expert at WHO told me several months ago
that she was shocked when she visited Botswana -- referred to as the
other African country implementing this approach -- to find that they
are not even following up to find out what happens to the babies fed
on formula. I doubt South Africa will do so either. Health care work-
ers' time will be stretched to the limit just to implement this ap-
proach, let alone follow it up to see what effect it is having. Amaz-
ing how such a harmful idea can take root and be accepted as standard
health care practice on such a huge scale before any evidence has
been presented on its impact.
Note that there is no hint of "voluntary" when speaking of testing in
this article. I doubt there will be any "choice" offered to the moth-
ers either. They will probably simply be given the test and if posi-
tive offered the formula, and people like this journalist will simply
assume that a life has thereby been saved. What a tragedy for a coun-
try with such limited resources to waste them in a way that may actu-
ally do overall harm to the health of its people.
See too how the journalist twists the statistics. Suddenly 1/3 of ba-
bies of HIV+ mothers will get the virus from breastfeeding. Will
UNAIDS make an effort to correct this? Or are they pleased to be able
to exploit this kind of misinformation and the resulting panic to
achieve their goals?
And now it's clearly acceptable to add UNICEF-bashing to the arsenal
of weapons the AIDS establishment can use to fight AIDS transmission.
Who would have ever dreamed it would come to this?
In sad solidarity with the innocent victims,
Ted Greiner, PhD
Section for International Maternal and Child Health
Department of Women's and Children's Health
Uppsala University Academic Hospital, Entrance 11
751 85 Uppsala
Sweden
Tel: +46-18-511-598
Fax: +46-18-508-013
mailto:Ted.Greiner@kbh.uu.se
or
mailto:ted_greiner@hotmail.com
Personal website:
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Spa/3156
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