Now, those HIV positive mothers, who have always lived worried about their breast-fed babies, have all reasons to cheer up. You can now feed your baby with your milk even being HIV positive, without effecting your child!
Researchers at the Berkeley and Davis campuses of the University of California have come up with an interesting answer to HIV-infected breast milk. They have developed a simple method ‘ i.e. flash-heating of HIV-infected breast milk ‘ that can successfully and amazingly inactivate the free-floating virus.
Lead author of the study, Kiersten Israel-Ballard, a doctoral candidate at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health said,
We conducted this research to help HIV-positive mothers and their infants who do not have safe alternatives to breastfeeding.
HIV can be transmitted to the baby via breastfeeding. But for infants in developing countries where infant mortality is already so high from diarrhea and other illnesses, they can’t afford to lose the antibodies, other anti-infective agents and the optimal nutrition found in breast milk. This study shows that an easy-to-implement heating method can kill the HIV in breast milk.
Now, HIV positive mothers can easily apply it at homes, by heating a glass jar of expressed breast milk in a pan of water over a flame or single burner. And your breast milk is just as healthy to feed your child with it without worries.
So now, even the mothers in resource-poor communities can lead their breast-milk HIV-free without worrying about the huge expenditures.
