Since 1981, WHO has regularly collected and disseminated information on the appropriate marketing and distribution of breast-milk substitutes. During that period only a few countries in Eastern Europe, e.g. the former Czechoslovakia and German Democratic Republic, and Hungary, were said to operate under the principle of health professional-prescribed use of infant formula. It appears that the sweep towards free-market principles has put an end to this practice. A still noteworthy case in this context is Papua New Guinea which, since 1977, while placing no restriction on the importation of infant formula, requires that baby feeding bottles, teats (nipples) and dummies (pacifiers) be sold at registered pharmacies and obtained only through medical prescription. Said prescription "cannot be given unless the authorized health worker is satisfied that it would be in the best interest of the baby or infant". The law was amended in 1984 to empower the Minister of Health to proscribe any feeding article considered to be hazardous to the health and well-being of infants. Jim Akre, Nutrition unit, WHO, Geneva