It has been said a number of times at this Forum that 60% of children under five die as a result of malnutrition and lack of food, while 4% are expected to die from HIV/AIDS. At least 1,500,000 children die every year as a direct result of formula. In spite of this clear evidence that breastfeeding is needed more than ever, the breastfeeding movement is being pushed into formula by claims about HIV which do not stand up to scrutiny.

The foremost question for all of us who want to defend breastfeeding and child health and survival is to ensure that mothers have FOOD AND WATER. Yet this is not a major topic at this Forum.

The evidence for HIV mother-to-child transmission is not based on independent research: the formula and pharmaceutical companies which have a greedy interest in undermining breastfeeding are behind most research. The only mainly independent research so far (Coutsoudis in rural South Africa) found that babies whose mothers are HIV+ benefit from exclusive breastfeeding. This research is being ignored in favour of studies which promote formula.

Many claims passing as scientific are contradictory and make no sense: we are told that a mother can be HIV+ in one breast and HIV– in the other. Some claim that exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months reduces HIV transmission, while others, mainly UN agencies, claim that breastfeeding by HIV+ mothers always risks transmission – "HIV = AIDS = death" -- and that therefore HIV+ mothers should never breastfeed. Even more bizarrely, mixed feeding after six months is said to increase transmission. What then is causing the transmission -- breast milk or other food?

Until recently we knew formula was "the baby killer". This Forum has been told repeatedly to think of formula not as food but as "medicine". This legitimises and promotes formula – it is the best news for formula and the worst news for mothers and babies! The same UN agency involved in such promotion has also accepted partnership with Mcdonald’s, the junk food manufacturer.

The most encouraging news at this Forum is that mothers are fighting to continue to breastfeed. Yet breastfeeding advocates are told to pressure many of them not to. The most disturbing news is that the Unicef pilot programmes which are supposed to inform mothers about choices are resulting in a decline in breastfeeding and increased infant death among HIV+ as well as HIV– children. One researcher reported informally that the results of the pilot were "catastrophic".

The HIV test, especially the one most commonly used in Africa, is known to be unreliable. Conditions such as pregnancy and illnesses like malaria and TB can cause false positive results. Yet this test is the basis for telling mothers to give formula, the first junk food, which we know to be genocidal especially in Africa.

Information on the "AIDS pandemic" in Africa is not even based on tests but on estimates. We are terrorised by so-called experts who say that HIV is devastating a whole continent and will kill us all unless we stop its transmission. There is no question that many people are dying. But while some of the symptoms seem new, others such as malaria and respiratory illnesses are familiar. AIDS symptoms also vary from continent to continent. The only explanation given for such assertions is that HIV undermines the immune system in different ways among different people.

Many people believe that HIV is a symptom rather than the cause of all this death, and that many factors are involved in the destruction of people’s immune systems – starting with increased poverty and malnutrition, extensive and often secret dumping of pollutants (including nuclear, chemical and petrol waste) by governments and multinationals, vaccination programmes, experimentation with dangerous drugs and vaccines . . . We are familiar, or should be, with this exploitation of Africa.

In England, we opposed the PENTA trials where mainly African babies (mostly from Uganda) were given adult doses of the anti-viral drug AZT. We spoke to mothers and grandmothers whose children died within a few months of taking the drug. They told us that their children were HIV+ but had no symptoms when they started the trial and that every time they took a dose of AZT they got progressively worse. They were in no doubt that AZT had killed them. Most had been forced into the trials, including by fear of deportation: they could not stay in England unless they submitted to such medical treatment.

We and others at this Forum have asked for evidence based not on HIV transmission, but on the state of health of mothers and children living with HIV (both breastfed and formula fed). That is, not how they test but if they’re ill. This evidence has not been forthcoming. Yet the crucial issue for any mother is whether her child has symptoms of illness and what can be done about those.

HIV does not = death. There are many HIV+ people, including in Africa, who are surviving without symptoms of ill health. Many have refused toxic anti-viral drugs.

This year’s AIDS conference in Barcelona discussed what to do about AZT and highly toxic drug-cocktails which are killing HIV+ people through heart attacks and destruction of the liver. But those who question HIV tests and toxic drugs are labelled "extremists" and their questions ignored. The South African government was brought into line by pressure at the highest level when its president dared to convene a panel of experts from all sides to examine the evidence before plunging into distribution of Nevirapine. They were taken to court and lost: the court ruled not only in favour of the drug but mysteriously also in favour of formula!

We can’t claim that we are presenting informed choice when the questions of HIV and what causes HIV transmission are not agreed by those who are supposed to inform.

We believe that dedicated breastfeeding advocates and health professionals are being misled and bullied into accepting formula. Many people at this Forum are worried that this will result in deaths and that such deaths will be blamed on HIV rather than on formula, the baby killer. Those of us in positions of responsibility have a duty to protect what is known to be saving lives: breast milk, the first and best food.

Pro-formula statements from powerful agencies take advantage of African women who, no matter how personally powerful, are in a weak economic and social position to stand up to international agencies whose help they need.

While no one likes to question the medical experts, they have been proven wrong before. At this moment a movement of parents in the UK and elsewhere is refusing the MMR vaccine for their children because they are convinced it causes autism. The medical experts and the government deny the link.

See The Milk of Human Kindness: Defending breastfeeding from the global market & the AIDS industry, Crossroads Books, London 2002. allwomencount@crossroadswomen.net