Do the benefits of breastfeeding outweigh the risk of postnatal transmission of HIV via breastmilk?
Kennedy, K.I.; Fortney, J.A.; Bonhomme, M.G.; Potts, M.; Lamptey, P.; Carswell, W.
Tropical Doctor 20(1): 25-29
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0049-4755 PMID: 2305477 DOI: 10.1177/004947559002000108Document Number: 361503
Conflicting recommendations have been offered about whether human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive (HIV+) mothers should breast-fed. Since there is a strong precedent for US infant feeding practices to be imitated in developing countries, a model was constructed to estimate infant mortality if the US Centers for Disease Control admonition for HIV+ mothers not to breast-feed were upheld in less developed settings. Estimates are given for infant mortality in the presence and absence of breast-feeding across several baseline levels of infant mortality and across several theoretical rates of transmission through breast-feeding. The infant mortality associated with HIV infection acquired through breast-feeding is estimated to be lower than the mortality associated with the diseases of infancy that would result if breast-milk were withheld. The difference in these estimates is greater in areas with high baseline levels of infant mortality.