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  • Title: Risks versus benefits. Infant feeding and HIV.
    Journal: AIDS Action; 1995 Feb; (27):2-3. PubMed ID: 12288721.
    Abstract:
    While HIV infection can be transmitted from mother to infant during pregnancy, child birth, or breast feeding, most infants born to infected mothers do not develop the virus. Ingesting infected breast milk does increase the risk of HIV, but it is not known by how much. It is also difficult to prove that a baby has been infected by breast milk rather than in the womb or during birth. The risk of transmission during breast feeding is increased if the mother becomes infected with HIV during blood transfusions during or shortly after childbirth, becomes infected when pregnant or breast feeding, or develops AIDS-related illnesses during pregnancy or breast feeding. Because breast feeding is important to infant health, health workers are advised to promote breast feeding in all cases. The babies of most HIV-infected mothers have a better chance of survival if they breast feed than if they do not. Women should be counseled to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection, but they should never been urged to determine their HIV status because they are pregnant or breast feeding. When counseling HIV positive women the following issues are important: 1) how does the woman feel about the risk, 2) if the woman does not breast feed is she afraid that would reveal her health status, 3) does the woman have the resources to provide alternative feeding, and 4) does the woman have access to clean water and fuel for sterilizing feeding utensils.
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