The Mail & Guardian newspaper recently printed two highly critical responses to Charlene Smith'€™s article on free medication and milk formula to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV (Mail & Guardian, January 26 '€“ Feb 1), but a letter sent to the newspaper by Professor Hoosen "Jerry" Coovadia, co-convenor of the AIDS 2000 Conference, Professor Anna Coutsoudis and other colleagues at the University of Natal went unpublished. Coutsoudis approached Health-e to clarify several key issues regarding HIV transmission and breast-feeding.