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Onnalita, 27, Austin, TX
An abridged version of a research paper I wrote for Advanced Nutrition for the Lifespan, a graduate course at Texas State University:
Approximately 1.8 million HIV-infected women deliver between 600,000-700,000 HIV-infected infants each year. Consequently, 200,000-350,000 infants are infected with HIV via breastfeeding annually. Over 95% of all HIV-infected children world wide live in developing countries. Of these children, over 90% have been infected by their mothers either initially during labor and delivery or shortly thereafter during breastfeeding. To eliminate the risk of HIV transmission during breastfeeding, mothers in industrialized countries were instructed to feed their infants formula, but this recommendation does not ensure infant safety in developing countries.
Although breastfeeding increases the risk of infants contracting HIV from HIV-infected mothers, breastfeeding also reduces morbidity and mortality from infectious disease and formula-associated diarrheal mortality. Mothers also benefit from breastfeeding. Mothers have a decreased risk of breast and ovarian cancer and lactational amenorrhea which is important for birth control in developing countries.
Alternatively, infants that are not breastfed and receive formula milk have a 6-fold increased risk of dying in the first 2 months of life. In developing countries where the most common cause of death is diarrhea and pneumonia, providing and recommending formula feeding for infants may not be the wisest choice. Confounding factors like households without piped water or a toilet increase the risk of morbidity and mortality for infants that are formula fed.
Additional Information: http://www.who.int/nutrition/
Resources:
Coutsoudis, A., Goga, A.E., Rollins, N., & Coovada,H.M. (2002) Free formula milk for infants of HIV-infected women: Blessing or curse? Health Policy and Planning, 17(2), 154-160.
Ndauti, R., John, G., Mbori-Ngacha, D., Richardson, B., Overbaugh, J., Mwatha, A., & et al. (2000). Effect of breastfeeding and formula feeding on transmission of HIV-1. JAMA, 283(9), 1167-1174.
Shapiro, R.L, Lockman, S., Thior, I., Stocking, L., Kebaabetswe, P., Wester, C., & et al. (2003). Low adherence to recommended infant feeding strategies among HIV-infected women: Results from the pilot phase of a randomized trial to prevent mother-to-child transmission in Botswana. AIDS Education and Prevention, 15(3), 221-230.
World Health Organization. (2007). HIV and infant feeding: New evidence and programmatic experience. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization.
