New Delhi: To avoid any danger to the health of children from tainted milk, the World Health Organisation and the UN Children's fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday urged Burmese mother's to fall back on breastfeeding for children below six months.
The Burmese Ministry of Health (MoH) and the two UN agencies in a joint action plan for safety of infants below six months, have advised parents to avoid using any kind of milk powder but to rely on breast feeding.
Anna K. Stechert, UNICEF's Communication Specialist told Mizzima, "Breast-feeding is the single most effective and the safest way to feed infants and young children. And as a matter of principle UNICEF does not promote any breast milk substitute, Chinese or otherwise."
The announcement of the joint action plan came a day after Burma's military government ran a warning message on its mouth-piece newspaper on the use of tainted milk. The warning, however, did not mention that Chinese sourced milk have been found to contain the chemical melamine, which is used in plastic.
But on Wednesday, the joint statement said the Burmese government is taking prompt action in response to the spread of contaminated milk powder in the country's market. The statement also said the government is also conducting search and test for possible contaminated milk in the markets.
"UNICEF does advocacy against the use of breast milk substitutes as it exposes children to diarrhoea through contaminated water that may be used in mixing the infant formula, or it may induce malnutrition caused by diluted milk," Anna said.
Meanwhile, contaminated milk powder in China has caused at least four deaths among children and over 52,000 to fall ill. The Chinese government has closed-down 22 dairy firms, whose milk products are found containing the chemical melamine.
So far, Burma, which shares a porous border with China through which legal and illegal Chinese made goods enters Burma, has not reported any instance of children falling sick after consuming the contaminated milk powder.
The joint statement also said the three groups will continue working closely to facilitate private sectors' understanding and cooperation to keep the Code on Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes, which includes no advertising of breast milk substitutes to families, no promotion or no free distribution of products through health care facilities and no words or pictures idealizing artificial feeding.
Despite the efforts, shopkeepers in Burma's former capital Rangoon and second largest city of Mandalay said, they have not received any notice from authorities to stop the sale of milk powder.
