Webinar Link

Meeting No: 2514 724 7143
Password: infant

Certificate of Participants

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Abstract

Infant formula marketing in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has been linked to substantial increases in infant mortality, especially where clean water is scarce. A recent reanalysis of historical data covering 2.6 million births across 38 LMICs shows that the introduction of aggressive formula marketing was associated with a 19.4 per 1,000 increase in infant deaths among households lacking safe water, equivalent to a 27 % rise in mortality and roughly 212,000 excess deaths per year at the peak of the controversy. Over the period 1960–2015, this may have contributed to about 10.9 million excess infant deaths. This webinar will deliberate on findings underscore the deadly consequences of substituting breastfeeding with formula in contexts where preparation conditions are unsafe, amplifying calls for stronger regulation and support for breastfeeding.

About the Speakers

Dr. Rattan Chand

Dr Rattan Chand is one of the founding Directors, EGROW Foundation. He is a former officer of the Indian Statistical Service and has served the Government of India in various positions for more than 35 years. While in the service, he worked closely with many Development Partners including USAID, World Bank, United Nations, World Health Organization etc. He has represented the Government at many national and International Meetings, Conferences and Seminars in the Health Sector. As Chief Director, in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, he was responsible for Monitoring and evaluation and during his tenure many activities like establishing Health Management Information System (HMIS), Annual Health Surveys, District Level Household Surveys and National Family Health Survey were initiated and completed.

He obtained Ph.D. in Population Studies from IIPS, Mumbai, PG Diploma in Population and Development from JNU and Master of Statistics from Punjabi University.

Jesse Anttila-Hughes

Jesse Anttila-Hughes is an Associate Professor and the current Chair of Economics at the University of San Francisco. His research combines physical and statistical approaches to economic, health, and social problems, illuminating the dynamics of coupled human-environmental systems ranging from climate change to planetary public health. His research has been published in leading journals such as Nature Communications, Scientific Reports, and the European Physical Review, and his work has appeared in news outlets such as Physics Today, The Wall Street Journal, and the NY Times. He has been the 2015 recipient of USF's Mentor of the Year Award in recognition for his work advising graduate students, as well as the 2023 USF Innovation in Teaching with Technology Award for his work on introducing students to AI and LLM methods in econometrics. He has served as a research advisor for institutions such as the World Bank, DFID, and World Food Programme, and previously worked in the private sector as an investment banker. He received his A.B. in Physics from Harvard in 2002, and his Ph.D. in Sustainable Development from Columbia in 2012.