Jun 21 2012
VOA News examines the South African government's decision in September 2011 to stop providing a free six-month supply of infant formula to mothers with HIV and have "its health facilities ... encourage the women to exclusively breastfeed for at least the first six months of their babies' lives." Though some criticized Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi for implementing the policy, "doctors at a hospital in an isolated part of South Africa's Eastern Cape province praised the minister's action as brave and visionary and said it would ultimately result in many lives being saved," the news agency writes. The article profiles the experience of doctors at Zithulele Hospital in Oliver Tambo District, which has followed the exclusive breastfeeding policy since 2006 and where one of every four mothers is infected with HIV; outlines why exclusive breastfeeding is preferable to mixed feeding; and discusses the challenges to implementing the policy nationwide (Taylor, 6/19).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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