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BMJ on breastfeeding infecting the Mother

In 1998, an outbreak of HIV infection in a children's hospital in Libya left 402 young children and 18 of their mothers infected. Investigators now think many of the infected mothers probably caught the virus while breast feeding their children. Everyone affected by the outbreak had an identical strain of HIV, making a source outside the hospital very unlikely. Infected mothers were much more likely to have breast fed their children during the outbreak than uninfected mothers (15/16 (94%) v 23/77 (30%); odds ratio 35.2, 95% CI 4.7 to 1508.8), and they were more likely than uninfected mothers to report broken skin on their nipples at the time (9/18 (50%) v 1/84 (1.2%)). Fifteen of their husbands were tested for HIV infection and all were negative.
Although these retrospective data can never be conclusive, the investigators are fairly sure that child to mother transmission took place during this outbreak, and that breast feeding was probably responsible. Babies infecting their mothers has been reported only once before-during a similar hospital outbreak in Russia in 1990.
JAMA 2005;294: 2301-2[Full Text]
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/331/7526/1165?eaf
See item 8
BMJ at http://bmj.com

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