South Africa Government moves to treat HIV+ mothers(2)
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In voicing his regrets over the recent decision to provide formula for
HIV+ women in South Africa, Ted said:
An expert at WHO told me several months ago that she was shocked when
she visited Botswana-referred to as the other African country imple-
menting 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 Af-
rica will do so either. Health care workers' time will be stretched to
the limit just to implement this approach, let alone follow it up to
see what effect it is having.
Does this signal an opportunity of sorts? If Botswana or South Africa
themselves do not have the resources or the will to initiate a system-
atic assessment of the impact of formula feeding as compared to breast-
feeding (in all its variants), perhaps some outside agencies could of-
fer to support such research. After all, much of the debate that rages
on about HIV/AIDS goes on and on only because there are important ques-
tions that have not been researched adequately. Both those who believe
in formula and those who believe in breast feeding should be willing to
endorse this sort of research. Would any of the intergovernmental agen-
cies be willing to stop forward at this opportune to support this much-
needed research?
Aloha, George
George Kent,
Professor
Department of Political Science
University of Hawaii
Honolulu,
Hawaii 96822
U.S.A.
Tel:+1-808-956-8743
Cell:+1-808-389-9422
Fax:+1-808-956-6877
mailto:kent@hawaii.edu
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kent
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