Professors provoke breastfeeding outrage

The esteemed professors seemed to have fall short in applying their minds on this rather complicated subject by trying to oversimplifying it.


Prof Glenda Gray is spot on.

The esteemed professors seemed to failed to realise that the opinions of "Activists" should never be questioned, challenged or debated. Activists want/demand complete monopoly of public debate.
Their (activists) issues are more important than society itself. Anyway, "activists" ALWAYS hold the moral high ground and they "know" "so much" If I had held to Professor Glenda Gray's (broad) view that my children would have been better off if my wife had eschewed breastfeeding and fed them some junk from a bottle by excercising HER human rights to go out and "work" then I would have been a moron like her. Professor, the child always comes first. Breastfeeding is fundamental to everything.
Activisms are the new religions, Bob Geldorf, Bono and Zackie are the new Gods whose views are absolute

Jabu Ncayiyan,

If you're going to criticise and pass judgement on the work of two esteemed professors (out of interest, what are you qualifications??), at least do so by using correct grammar!

@JLG, get outta here with your grammar school nonsense. A person is entitled to their opinion, regardless of whether they went to your school or not. (Back to the topic): These good people need to get together to thrash out their opinions in the best interest of the patients. They should stop shouting at each other, trying to score points. M&G: How about arranging a think tank get-together?

Coovadia is a well known opportunist and attention seeker. Many billions has been wasted on HIV research, and people like Coovadia (who depends on HIV research funding) and LANCET, which publishes lots of HIV research papers, are both intrinsically linked to HIV-AIDS. If the disease loses its funding generating ability, then they lose funding. In fact Activists, need AIDS to be popular rather than cured.

Thank goodness Prof. Gray's comments were also shared. Simple awareness, abstinance/safe sex and cultural values will stop AIDS. It really is that simple.

The article is talking about HIV positive women. They have a 15% risk of transferring this infection to their baby. Shouldn't the emphasis be on HOW we can ensure that these women have 1. Access to clean water and 2. A regular supply of formula milk so that we can be assured that the next generation is HIV negative?

"In addition to this, Coovadia said, the state often runs out of formula milk, "as evidently happened in Johannesburg earlier this year",

Problem is the people who were supposed to order the formula and have money left over to pay for it are the same ones who would have had to order the anti-retroviral drugs that HIV+ people are supposed to rely on to decrease transmission in breastmilk. Stories like this seem to really only be of academic interest, seeing as how the system tends to fall down at almost every hurdle anyway.

Oh, and if its not your job and you get the drugs for your patients anyway you're liable to get fired for not following 'protocol' - three whole syllables in that one. Their mothers must be so proud.

Maybe they should study the benefits of a shower after feeding to reduce transmission rates? Makes about as much sense as the other shower argument, although, again, it would mean governement would need to supply running water to all new mothers and somehow I can't see that happenening.

I dream of the day people contributing to debates here can do so without trading personal insults.
Back to the topic. Breast milk is best milk -period. That is what the two profs are arguing. There have always been problems with formula feed and it should always be used only when the woman is unable to breastfeed because of ill heath, is unable to produce milk, the baby doesn't want the breast, or the mother is forced to work. Breastmilk offers the best protection for the baby because it contains natural antibodies. The issue of choice is a different matter and has nothing to do with the merits of breastfeeding and disease prevention. Politicising the matter will cloud the matter and confuse the science. I don't think what Coovadia is saying is rocket science. Women should be encouraged to breastfeed whether they're HIV + or not, but positive women have a greater responsibility to protect their children from infection, and if breastfeeding achieves that objective, then why should they not be persuaded to do so?

@pete ess,

I never said a person wasn't entitled to their opinion, they just need to be able to back it up. Jabu Ncayiyana can't say that the professors have 'fallen short' without explaining to us why exactly she has said that. It would also be better if she used proper grammar.

As an aside, its 'get out of here', not 'outta' here.

One thing that wasn't mentioned in this article is that another option for HIV positive women is to pasteurise their breast milk. It reduces the transmission to zero and is also an option for working moms since pasteurised expressed milk can be stored as well.