HIV transmission

The first evidence that HIV could be transmitted via breast milk was a case report of the child of a previously healthy woman who was delivered by caesarean section. Because of blood loss from the operation, the mother was given a blood transfusion after the delivery. The baby was breastfed for six weeks. Later, it was discovered that a unit of the transfused blood had been contaminated with HIV. The mother and her infant were subsequently found to have both become infected.1

There have also been reports of infants of HIV-negative mothers becoming infected through exposure to HIV via wet-nursing or pooled breast milk.2

References

  1. Ziegler JB et al. Postnatal transmission of AIDS-associated retrovirus from mother to infant. Lancet 1: 896-898, 1985
  2. Nduati R et al. Postnatal transmission of HIV-1 through pooled breast milk. Lancet 344: 1432, 1994
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