IBFAN Asia Newswire

The Last word on Infant and Young Child Feeding

• IBFAN Asia gets nomination for the health systems social media awards (HSSMA), you can endorse it too!!
  IBFAN Asia is being endorsed by people across the globe for monitoring the international code of marketing of breast milk substitutes. It’s gaining admiration as a watchdog organization that uses social media to keep a check on corporations' marketing campaigns. HSSMA is a public endorsement award purely based on how many endorsements we get as an organization present on social media. We seek your support to win this award, come endorse us.

• Alliance Against Conflict of Interest (AACI) denounces PepsiCo’s attempts to enter in Mid Day Meal Scheme in India
  PepsiCo, one of the biggest producers of foods and beverages that are either unhealthy or have no nutritional value, is being considered by the Food Processing Ministry to provide healthy meals for children under MDM scheme. If the government takes this or such unconscionable steps it would be providing a platform to PepsiCo to strengthen their brand presence. Experts say surrogate marketing through PPPs is the underlying tactic of corporations 
  
  Related Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Harsimrat-Smriti-slug-it-out-over-midday-meal/articleshow/41042087.cms

• World premiere of Danis Tanovic’s Tigers gains standing ovation for Nestlé whistle blower
  “Tigers” is a based-on-fact drama in which a young salesman, who is devastated when he discovers the effects of the infant formula on the children of his community. After knowing the reality he becomes a whistle blower against the baby food scandal in Pakistan. This is true story portrayed on silver screen by popular young Bollywood star Emraan Hashmi. The movie was screened at the Toronto film festival last week gaining great response from viewers and reviewers.

Highlights

• Fit for the malnourished?
  Author: Dinesh C Sharma
  Published in: DNA
  Instead of respecting and nurturing food and vegetable diversity and making it the basis for developing region and culture-specific nutrition guidelines, the government is rejecting the idea of cooked food altogether in favour of ‘one size fits all’ pre-cooked, processed and branded food. This is the real danger. 
  
  Related Links: http://www.babymilkaction.org/archives/1931
  http://www.rajeevmasand.com/whats-new/danis-tanovic-i-didnt-steal-indias-oscar/comment-page-1/#comment-428263

• Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) notifies norms for research analysts to ward off Conflict of Interest 
  Author: Press Trust of India
  Published in: The Economic Times
  In a move to safeguard Indian markets from any manipulative research reports including by foreign entities, Sebi has notified norms for 'research analysts' to ward off any conflict of interest in their activities.

• Medicalising common ailments is one of healthcare's greatest threats
  Author: Kaliash Chand
  Published in: Health Service Journal (HSJ)
  Health services around the globe have seen a growing trend of medicalisation even for treatments of lifestyle problems. The doctor’s role is crucial in educating patients and treating them according to clinical need in such cases rather than succumbing to inducements or medical, pharmaceutical and financial targets.

Global Research Desk

• Childhood diarrhoeal deaths in seven low- and middle-income countries
  Objective: To investigate the clinical characteristics of children who died from diarrhoea in low- and middle-income countries, such as the duration of diarrhoea, comorbid conditions, care-seeking behaviour and oral rehydration therapy use.
  
  Persistent diarrhoea remains an important cause of diarrhoeal death in young children in low- and middle-income countries.  Research is needed on the public health burden of persistent diarrhoea and current treatment practices to understand why children are  still dying from the condition.