I was browsing the British Medical Journal and was alerted to this website
www.diseasemongering.org

In Karleen Gribble's home town, the first ever conference on disease
mongering was just held this week.  Among the abstracts freely available at
the above website is one on "Selling sickness to mothers and babies -
historical perspectives on infant food advertising and breastfeeding
practices in Australia".   The author, a Dr Julie P. Smith, notes that
infant food marketing sells sickness in two ways, and I quote:
"promoting use of a product that multiplies risks of illness and disease,
even in developed countries like Australia by 2-3 fold; and, marketing
strategies which undermine breastfeeding as the norm for infant feeding by
inventing multiple categories of 'special' babies with health conditions
justifying artificial milk formula"

Many of the abstracts are relevant to various discussions on Lactnet.  I am
convinced that the current surge in worldwide disease mongering coincides
with two things: increased affluence in many developing countries, providing
a growth market for pharmaceuticals, and tightening up on spending on
so-called health costs in the US (so-called because I don't buy the notion
that every dollar spent on pharmaceuticals is a dollar spent on improving
health).  The pharmaceutical industry needs people who perceive themselves
as ill in order to sell them the cures.  The abstract cited above draws
parallels between drug marketing and the marketing of foods for infants, at
the expense of breastfeeding.

The collected abstracts are well worth taking a look at, IMO.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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