HEALTH: WHO Assembly Adamant on Breastfeeding and Tobacco

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, May 23 2001 (IPS) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) adopted forceful resolutions that promote breastfeeding and restrict tobacco industry lobbying, but proposals on the crucial matter of access to low-cost essential medications were watered down, say observers at the World Health Assembly.

The annual international meeting of health ministers wound down Tuesday in Geneva, settling a long-running controversy by voting to explicitly recommend that babies should be exclusively breast fed until they reach six months.

The previous recommendations of the WHO indicated that mothers should breastfeed their newborns during the first four to six months.

The International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), a non- governmental organisation (NGO) that promotes breastfeeding, applauded the decision of the ministers gathered here, saying it is “a victory of science over the vested interests of the baby food industry.”

The resolution, sponsored by the Brazilian delegation, “will stop the baby food industry from marketing complementary food for use from four months of age or even earlier,” predicted IBFAN.

The NGO calculates that the extra sales of such foods resulting from labelling products for use from four months of age rather than six months represents more than one billion dollars for the baby food industry annually.

IBFAN also reported that the International Association of Infant Food Manufacturers had tried unsuccessfully to dilute the language of the pro-breastfeeding proposal.

Cesar Victora, epidemiology professor at the University of Pelotas, Brazil, said he is “pleased to see that scientific evidence can result in changes in a global policy.” He pointed out that for the last 15 years scientists have been accumulating evidence on the benefits of exclusively breastfeeding newborns until they reach the age of six months.

Another resolution of the Assembly, which ran May 14-22, challenged the undue influence transnational tobacco firms wield over governments and the WHO itself.

The text of the resolution warns the 191 WHO member countries about the efforts of the tobacco industry to “subvert the role of governments and of the WHO in implementing public health policies to combat the tobacco epidemic.”

The document also urges governments to be aware of affiliations between big tobacco and members of their delegations to the WHO.

Representatives from Infact, a watchdog NGO that exposes corporate abuse, pointed out that approval of the tobacco control resolution was only possible after overcoming resistance from the United States and other countries.

The Assembly’s decision is “a major victory” and represents an important step toward the WHO Framework Agreement on Tobacco Control, which member states have been negotiating for more than a year, said Kathryn Mulvey, executive director of the US-based Infact.

The resolutions on access to essential medications, also presented by Brazil, were another target of US opposition.

The European Union (EU) promoted a compromise – which was ultimately approved – with a text that excludes any reference to the monopoly of transnational pharmaceutical firms, consecrated by the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

Brazil had hoped to win the World Health Assembly’s backing for its national policy on HIV/AIDS drugs, which consists of providing anti-retroviral drugs free of charge to the 536,000 people testing positive for the virus in the South American country.

The programme for free and universal access to the anti- retroviral medications stabilised the incidence of HIV/AIDS in Brazil five years ago to a rate of 14 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

But the policy has cost Brazil an international lawsuit – brought by the United States and currently underway at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) – for allegedly violating TRIPS rules.

The resolution approved by the World Health Assembly spells out that policies on access to medications must “be consistent with international law,” a nod to the WTO and its controversial intellectual property accord.

In another resolution, the Assembly approved WHO expenses for 2002 totalling 421.3 million dollars. But the organisation’s budget will close this year with a deficit of 20.7 million dollars due to a decline in income.

WHO contributions from the United States shrank from 25 to 22 percent of the total, but developing countries protested the reduction of the US share by refusing to approve new funds to cover the 20.7-million-dollar difference.