Further to Lois's post: document codes are
WHO/FRH/NUT/CHD/98.1 Guidelines for decision-makers
WHO/FRH/NUT/CHD/98.2 A guide for health care managers and supervisors
WHO/FRH/NUT/CHD/98.3 Review of HIV transmission via breastfeeding
Available as a set of three for 16Swiss francs from WHO Distribution and
Sales, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland. Order number 1930135
Number 3 is not yet circulating as freely as one and two. I have them but
have not read them critically so am not yet commenting. It may be that we
all are convinced by the arguments and data therein, though my initial
instincts are to support what Pam Morrison has kept on saying so well over
time, because to me it seems almost impossible not to do more harm than
good by supplying formula to poor and uneducated people who can't afford to
buy it and who live in situations where the backup to save children made
ill by it does not exist (in poor areas of every country, whatever the skin
colour or nationality). However, as a historian I can't say that I'm
surprised that in 50 years UNICEF has come full circle and is again
supplying cows milk to the world's infants: I only hope that this time it
will do less damage than it did the first time. At least there has been
some growth of awareness of breastmilk's importance at some levels of
UNICEF (but certainly not all) in the intervening years.
As the song said, and it's one step forward and two steps back, most of the
time...

Maureen Minchin, IBCLC. Christ Church Vicarage, 14 Acland St., St.Kilda,
Vic. 3182 Australia. tel/fax: 61 3 9537 2640
"Taking paths of least resistance is what makes rivers - and people -
crooked." poster in Palmerston North NZ bookshop...