“United Nations agencies are promoting breastfeeding to avoid unnecessary illness and deaths of children in the wake of the disaster wrought on the Philippines by Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) earlier this month,” the U.N. News Centre reports. “‘The estimated 12,000 babies to be born in the worst-affected areas this month need to be exclusively breastfed, meaning that they get nothing but breast milk, which protects them from potentially deadly infections,’ the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the [WHO] said in a joint news release,” the news service writes (11/29). “Tacloban, the capital of Leyte province, and its neighboring municipalities have so far averted any major public-health scare despite being among the worst-hit districts, thanks to steady progress in restoring piped-water supply and help from international medical-relief groups,” the Wall Street Journal states, adding, “But even as the region’s hospitals and clinics steadily restore operations and prepare for growing numbers of respiratory and chronic ailments, health officials and doctors worry that many pregnant women and babies remain vulnerable” (Wong et al., 11/29).