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HEALTH: Assembly Takes Action on Adults, Newborns Will Have to Wait

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, May 22 2004 (IPS) - The world’s health ministers approved more ambitious policies for preventing deaths from problems affecting mostly adults, such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and road accidents, but largely ignored a proposal to strengthen health protections for newborns.

The World Health Assembly concluded its week-long session Saturday, adopting a Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health that promotes reduced consumption of fats, sugars and sodium and discourages so-called “junk food”.

The campaign against obesity was approved by consensus once objections from the food industry and sugar-exporting countries were taken into account in the final text.

But left for future sessions was a proposal for preventative policies against bacteria present in powdered milk intended for infants, and against certain types of advertising and labelling that some of the producers of those products use.

“The Assembly agreed to tackle diseases which can spread from the environment, or from person to person, and also those linked to the foods we eat, the amount we exercise and the safety of our roads,” World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Lee Jong-wook said.

The greatest success of the meet was the approval of the strategy against obesity and other risks related to eating habits that are the underlying cause of noncommunicable diseases, a set of illnesses that cause 60 percent of deaths worldwide and constitute 47 percent of the global disease burden.

Infact, a non-governmental group known for its corporate watchdog role in tracking tobacco and food companies, applauded the assembly’s decision to set up a global strategy for diet and nutrition.

“The approval of the Global Strategy is a positive step forward as WHO member states take action to address issues of nutrition globally,” said Infact executive director Kathryn Mulvey.

But, she said, “It is also a wake-up call regarding the power of commercial interests, like the food and sugar industries, to interfere in health development policies.”

The strategy the ministers approved Saturday has been “watered down”, said Mulvey, “as the food industry and its allies in governments pushed for an increased focus on individual responsibility while working to shift attention away from the industry’s responsibility.”

The World Health Assembly also approved a reproductive health strategy to help those countries that are dealing with the impacts of reproductive and sexually transmitted diseases, which cover 20 percent of illnesses suffered by women and 14 percent by men..

As for road safety, the WHO will work with the United Nations to reduce the number of deaths and injuries from vehicle accidents. Currently the death toll averages 1.2 million a year. And 50 million people are injured on the world’s roads annually.

But the developing countries’ proposal to establish mechanisms of protection for the nutrition of the nursing infant and toddler did not lead to agreement on action.

The initiative was rejected under procedural matters brought up by industrialised countries where the leading infant formula industries are located.

The resolution proposed that member states should inform new parents and health professionals that the powdered formulas for infants could be contaminated in the manufacturing process by dangerous bacteria.

Such warnings should be made explicit in the products labels, stated the proposal.

Yeong Joo Kean, a representative from Consumers International, said, “Serious illness such as meningitis, sepsis, necrotising enterocolitis and even death can result from the potential contamination arising from the manufacturing processes of powdered infant formulas by Enterobacter sakazakii” – known as “intrinsic contamination”.

The infant formula industry had maintained that contamination arose in the use of the products, in unsanitary feeding bottles or contaminated water supplies, which is “extrinsic”.

Investigations now show that it is the powdered milk formula itself that is contaminated, said Fernando Vallone, head of the Argentine group LACMAT, which encourages new mothers to breastfeed their infants.

Enterobacter sakazakii appears in powdered milk for infants, but also in regular powdered milk products, but does not pose a great danger for older children or adults, said Vallone, who is a physician.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in April 2003 issued a nationwide recommendation to paediatricians against powdered milk formula for newborns.

Another issue of concern for the developing countries promoting the initiative are the claims in the labelling and advertising for these products that they provide certain health protections for the infant.

The powdered milk labels may suggest that the product improves the intellectual development of the child, or that it contains more iron, potentially leading the mother to believe erroneously that it is better for her child than her own breastmilk.

Indeed, breastfeeding reduces infant mortality by 13 percent, said Heidi Kuonen-Goetz, spokeswoman for La Leche League International.

“Exclusive breastfeeding until about the middle of the first year of the child and sustained breastfeeding with complementary foods for two years and beyond is a major component to ensure food security and food safety throughout the world,” she said.

The postponed initiative also demanded that WHO member states take steps to prohibit the sponsorship of health professionals and associations by infant formula manufacturers or distributors.

There is a conflict of interest when doctors and scientific associations receive financial support from such companies, said Vallone.

Scientific publications like The Lancet and the British Medical Journal have reported on how physicians’ actions are conditioned by contact with any pharmaceutical company, said the LACMAT president.