Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - August 14, 2005
Phindile Chauke

Staff at Gauteng clinics fear they will have to send mothers home empty-handed next week if Nestle, which makes the formula Nan Pelargon, does not replenish their shelves tomorrow.

Nestle has a massive government contract to supply clinics and hospitals countrywide.

At the Coronation Hospital in Newclare, west of Joburg, there is only a reserve of 104 tins of infant formula left.

Next week the hospital expects more than 120 mothers to arrive to collect food for their babies - but only 14 of them will get the formula.

The Prevention of Mother to Child HIV Transmission Programme was set up in Gauteng, where more than 188 hospitals and clinics provide thousands of mothers with free formula for the first six months of their babies' lives.

This is to prevent them infecting their babies with the virus through breastfeeding.

Lillian Mnisi, Gauteng deputy director for the Prevention Programme for HIV-Aids, said they did not know of any "dry-outs" at hospitals or clinics. But she was fully aware that they were all experiencing difficulties due to the lack of infant formula.

"We are aware that there are delays of stock delivery. Nestle said they would deliver on Friday but that has now changed and it will only happen [tomorrow]," she said.

Nestle spokesman Amanda Reiss confirmed there were problems.

"In order to address the shortage we have reopened our Bethal factory and have asked our Brazilian market to assist us to meet our backlog and current needs," she said.

But a dietician at Coronation Hospital, Carey Harman, said she was very worried about the situation.

"In February we ran out of milk and the mothers gave their babies rooibos tea and sugar water because they got so desperate.

"Nestle has run out of stock even in supermarkets and it is causing confusion among mothers. A lot of them do not understand when stocks run out. They do not know what to give their babies," Harman said.

Reiss said: "We are fully aware of the difficulties our customers are experiencing due to the irregular availability of Nestle infant formula and we very much regret the situation."

She said a number of factors had caused this, including:

*The demand for the formula was outstripping the capacity of their aging Bethal factory;

*The supply of the formula had been diminished by a strike;

*Customers were stockpiling the product, which was increasing the pressure on suppliers; and

*They had experienced a 20% increase in sales in 2004.

But Harman said it was Nestle's responsibility to make sure that they had stock.

"We placed an order two months ago. But Nestle keeps saying it is coming next week and then when we call again they promise the following week, but nothing arrives," she said.

Harman said from January to June the hospital had given mothers more than 25000 tins of formula.

"We do not have contact numbers for the mothers so we cannot warn them not to come to collect the formula. Nestle does not even warn us. They should warn us, because now little babies are going to starve next week. I spoke to a lady at Nestle who said they were still manufacturing this week and that they will deliver in two weeks' time.

"This is the only certified milk we can give them," Harman said.

She said she was worried that the mothers who do not get the formula will switch to breastfeeding, which will put their babies in danger of being infected with HIV.

"These babies are going to become malnourished because they are at high risk of contracting diseases. An adult can stay without food for two days, but babies can die," she said.

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