The World Breastfeeding Week concluded Thursday with a call to raise awareness further to make the campaign a success like the immunisation scheme, reports UNB.
Uzzal Bikash Datta, joint secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said at the concluding ceremony that global efforts were also needed to resolve the problems related to marketing of powder milk as baby food.
'Global initiative is needed to redress the problem since Bangladesh has no control over alternative milk,' he said.
The Bangladesh Breastfee-ding Foundation (BBF) organised the programme in the city's ICDDR,B auditorium.
Datta said awareness was the key to making the campaign a success.
Referring to the EPI campaign, he said breastfeeding could also save many lives.
BBF Chairperson Dr SK Roy, who chaired the function, said exclusive breastfeeding for six months is one of the most effective tools to curb the child mortality rate.
He said breastfeeding protects health of both the child and the mother.
Dr Roy, also a senior scientist with the ICDDR,B, called upon all to work together to ensure breastfeeding of every child within one hour after birth.
The function was also addressed, among others, by Dr MA Salam, Acting Executive Director of the ICDDR,B, Nick Southern, Country Represen-tative of Care Bangladesh, Vincent Edwards, Executive Director of World Vision, Prof Fatima Parveen Chowdhury, Director of IPHN, Biman Kumar Saha, Executive Director of NNP, and Prof Soofia Khatoon, Secretary of BBF.
