PHA-Exchange> Decline in breastfeeding linked to child deaths in Asia: UNICEF

[claudio at hcmc.netnam.vn]

from Vern Weitzel <vern at coombs.anu.edu.au> -----

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070620/hl_afp/healthasiachildren_070620110900

Decline in breastfeeding linked to child deaths in Asia: UNICEF

MANILA (AFP) - About 160,000 infants die each year in the Asia-Pacific region 
due to a decline in breastfeeding, a UNICEF expert told a regional conference 
on 
Wednesday.

There are "roughly 160,000 children dying annually in Eastern and Southeastern 
Asia whose deaths are attributed to something as preventable and as imminently 
correctable as sub-optimal breastfeeding," said UN children's agency (UNICEF) 
regional advisor Stephen Atwood.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that babies less than five months 
old 
who were not exclusively breastfed were at much higher risk of diarrhoea and 
pneumonia, which often prove deadly in developing countries.

The joint WHO and UNICEF conference to promote breastfeeding said just 35 
percent of babies in the region were exclusively breastfed in the first four 
months of their lives.

In a joint statement they said this was "an alarming threat to child 
survival," 
and called on countries in the region to invest more in promoting 
breastfeeding 
and to warn people of "the dangers of breast milk substitutes."

WHO regional director Shigeru Omi warned that "breastfeeding rates declined in 
most developing countries in East Asia and the Pacific where just over one-
third 
of mothers exclusively breastfeed their babies for up to six months."

He cited host country the Philippines as an example, where the rate of 
exclusive 
breastfeeding in the first five months fell from 20 percent in 1998 to 16 
percent in 2003.

The rate of exclusive breastfeeding of babies six months old varied widely in 
the region with Thailand at 5.4 percent and North Korea at 65.1 percent, the 
WHO 
said in a statement.

The WHO said an increase in breastfeeding in Cambodia had contributed to a 
sharp 
fall in child mortality.

In 2000, just 11 percent of Cambodian mothers breastfed their babies for the 
first six months. By 2005, 60 percent were breastfeeding which the WHO said 
contributed to a steep fall in child mortality rates over the same period.

Omi said governments should address the problem by ensuring their health 
systems 
promoted breastfeeding.

He also called for legislation to ban "the inappropriate promotion of breast 
milk substitutes," especially those which say these products can increase the 
health and intelligence of children.

In the region, he noted only the Philippines and Palau had laws explicitly 
barring the promotion of infant formula as breast milk substitutes for babies 
below the age of one.



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