Global Science and Global Profits

This is the first annual Global Issue of Breastfeeding Medicine. The journal has always been global, distributed at no charge electronically in developing nations and encouraging the submission of manuscripts from investigators and academicians from every country. The goal of this special issue is to highlight the vast interests and resources devoted to breastfeeding and human lactation in all corners of the earth. Many more manuscripts were submitted from outside the United States for review than can be accommodated in one issue of the journal. The journal, of course, has had the opportunity to publish many manuscripts from many geographic sites since it was established in 2005. Subsequent issues will continue the global tradition, reviewing all manuscripts energetically and enthusiastically.

In this issue, a keen look at breastfeeding at 24 months of age in northeast Italy is presented by Cattaneo and co-workers; ¹ Adriano Cattaneo will be the Founder's Lecturer at the Academy meeting in Miami, FL, in November 2011. A very interesting method for preparing milk from human immunodeficiency virus–positive mothers in Kenya for consumption by their offspring is presented by Borkow et al. ² We also proudly include work from the United Kingdom, Turkey, India, Romania, Guatemala, Ethiopia, and Australia.

As the interest in and the commitment to breastfeeding gain momentum around the globe, the journal has tried to facilitate communication among investigators and clinicians. Many of our authors are isolated in communities focused on clinical work and child survival, not research. Having an intellectual connection with other scientists is crucial to solidifying the footing breastfeeding has gained intellectually.

As this Global Issue was brought to closure, the editors were becoming comfortable with the progress that was being made to promote, protect, and support breastfeeding globally until we received an alarming e-mail from a new physician friend in Laos who works with Health Frontiers. The formula companies are on the move again with the most egregious campaign to sell formula ever. Nestlé also advertises to the public with huge billboards extolling the benefits of follow-up formula to the families of 6 month olds and older. The message is that formula produces healthier, smarter babies. Many families have been convinced and are switching to expensive formula in a country where the morbidity and mortality among infants and young children are rising. Nestlé's Bear Brand coffee creamer is even being used because it has the same mother and baby bear logo and is cheaper than the formula.

In the letter to Nestlé-Suise S.A. in May 2011, all the Agencies for International Development (AID) stoutly protested Nestlé's behavior and spelled out, in detail, all of the actions that are weakening the national regulatory frameworks and aggressively flooding the market with information that dilutes public health campaigns that promote breastfeeding.

While we sit comfortably at our desks whimsically contemplating conflict of interest and code compliance, innocent children are being fed less than optimally by well-meaning parents all in the name of corporate greed.

Physicians everywhere have a moral obligation to protect their patients from the misinformation being published and distributed worldwide that does indeed weaken the commitment to promote, protect, and support breastfeeding across all countries rich and poor and even in our very own neighborhoods.