I B F A N R e s o u r c e s

Newsletters

available from Regional IBFAN Offices.

 • Baby Milk Action Update, three times a year Cambridge, U.K.

• INFACT Canada Newsletter, quarterly English edition, and annual French edition, Toronto, Canada.

• IBFAN Africa News Bulletin, Mbabane, Swaziland.

• En-Red-Dados, Noticias & Informacion de Lactancia Materna. IBFAN Argentina.

• Courrier de L’IBFAN, IBFAN Afrique, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

• IBFAN-ALC Spanish bulletin

 IBFAN-ALC Resource Centre

C. C. (1718) S. A. Padua

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Tel/Fax 54 11 49 539 424

E-mail doculac@yahoo.com

• IBFAN INFO - Regional Office

IBFAN 2002 Calendar

Available from IBFAN Regional Offices.

One picture is worth a thousand words.

E-mail: babymilkacti@gn.apc.org

Training

Annual Training Course: ICDC Code

Implementation Training Course.

For details contact IBFAN/ICDC

Code Resources

available from Regional IBFAN Offices or

IBFAN/ICDC

P.O. Box 19

10700 Penang, Malaysia

Fax 60 4 657 7291

E-mail ibfanpg@tm.net.my

IBFAN International

Monitoring Project (IMP III)

‘Breaking the Rules 2001’ and national

reports available from Regional Offices

The IBFAN Action Pack

 available from Regional IBFAN Offices or

Baby Milk Action 23 St. Andrew’s Street

Cambridge, U.K. CB2 3AX

Tel 44 1223 464 420

Fax 44 1223 464 417

Breastfeeding Briefs

available from Regional IBFAN Offices.

GLOBAL INITIATIVE FOR MOTHER

SUPPORT (GIMS) CONFERENCE

"Linking & Nurturing Mother Support"

21 - 23 April 2002

STRENGTHENING MATERNITY

PROTECTION CONFERENCE

24 - 25 April 2002

NEW! NEW!

IBFAN and related websites:

www.ibfan.org

Exclusive breastfeeding prevents death from diarrhoeal

and acute respiratory infections

The importance of exclusive breastfeeding is highlighted by the dramatic results from a large population study done in Latin America and the Caribbean that examined breastfeeding rates from national surveys for 16 countries.   Researchers, Betran et al, analyzed infant feeding patterns for the first year of life and exclusive breastfeeding for ages 0 to 3 months as relatively few older infants in Latin America are exclusively breastfed.  In addition they used “attributable risk methods” to calculate the fraction of deaths from diarrhoeal disease and acute respiratory infections that could be prevented by exclusive breastfeeding during the first 3 months and partial breastfeeding for the remainder of the first year. In 1990 deaths due to diarrhoeal disease for children under 5 years old was 18.4% and from acute respiratory disease 14.1%. Half of the diarrhoeal disease deaths occurred during the first year of life and three quarters of the deaths from acute respiratory disease.

Table 3. Annual age specific mortality from diarrhoeal disease in Latin America that is preventable by exclusive breast feeding of infants aged 0-3 months and partial breast feeding for remainder of first year. Results are presented as attributable proportions of deaths from diarrhoeal disease and deaths from all causes.

THS 4-11 MONTHS 0-11 MONTHS

ASIA-PACIFIC CONFERENCE 2002

The authors estimated that in Latin America 55% of infant deaths totaling about 52,000 deaths annually from both diseases are preventable by exclusively breastfeeding infants aged 0 to 3 months and partially breastfeeding for the remainder of the first year. They recommend that breastfeeding promotion interventions focus on exclusive breastfeeding and meeting the challenge of providing adequate and comprehensive support to mothers.  Given the recent passage of WHA 54.2 an increased emphasis on not only exclusive breastfeeding but the optimal duration of 6 months will no doubt increase the life saving benefits even more.