PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- A forthcoming campaign to enhance access to human milk for premature infants in hospital settings was announced today by Elena Medo, Chair and CEO of Medolac Laboratories during a plenary presentation at the Annual International Meeting of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine.  

The Campaign sets an ambitious target to improve access to human milk in Neonatal Intensive Care Units from less than 5% today to 20% by the end of 2014.  "Nothing holds a greater opportunity to improve health outcomes for premature infants than the accessibility of safe, affordable and reliable supply of human milk adapted for their use".

The shortage of human milk in Neonatal Intensive Care Units has been well documented, including in an article published by Ms. Medo in the Journal of Breastfeeding Medicine (Vol. 8, No.5) earlier this month, highlighting the critical shortage of donor milk for very low birth weight (VLBW) infants despite the clear health advantages it brings, particularly by greatly reducing the incidence of gastrointestinal diseases such as sepsis and necrotizing enterocolitis. 

Achievement of this ambitious target will be met by greatly increasing the supply of donor milk through the development of cooperative milk banking.  Elena Medo has been a pioneer of the innovative coop model as a way to give donors a voice, fair compensation for their milk and provide incentive to donors to improve supply. 

Donor milk safety is also a key component of increasing access, since premature infants are often immunocompromised and experience a high risk of infection.  Medolac Laboratories requires blood screening of donor candidates, testing of each donor's milk for disease, contamination and drugs of abuse, testing of pooled donor milk for safety and nutrition as well as the testing of finished product.  More information about the "From Survive to Thrive" campaign will be made available as Medolac makes progress towards fulfilling its objective in 2014.   

About Medolac:

Our vision is to provide human milk based therapies to critically ill babies and children on a global basis by applying proprietary biopharmaceutical processing methods that preserve the immune components in human milk while providing the safest, highest quality human milk formulations available to babies in need.    Medolac Laboratories is a Delaware registered, public benefit corporation (Neolac Inc. dba Medolac) headquartered at Lake Oswego, Oregon in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. 

Media Contact: Yvonne Arroyo, Medolac Laboratories, 8665997740, Media@medolac.com

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SOURCE Medolac Laboratories