Kate,
I believe that there is a couple of studies that are being presented at this
Conference that seem to confirm Coutsaudis' study  back in 1999.  I believe
one is the Zvitambo Project in Zimbabwe.   Dr. Peter Iliff (one of the
researchers for this study) states, "overall transmission rate of nearly 13%, and mixed
breast feeders transmitted nearly twice as often as those who only
exclusively breast-fed, and that distance is statistically significant."
http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/hivaid/040623kub.asp?sector=HIVAID

The actual study is available on the web and if anyone needs that address you
can email me.  At the moment I just don't have the time to find it to put it
on this post.

In my opinion, all this isn't too surprising.  We have a number of patents on
human milk components to inactivate and treat hiv/aids.  The US Health
Department owns one of them.  It should serve as an indicator/a barometer
that something is seriously amiss with health care policy regarding hiv/aids and
breastfeeding.  I should add that not only are there patents but companies are
marketing products based on these patents.  Key researchers on hiv/aids are
invested in these products.

One should keep in mind that the statistics on MTCT on hiv/aids are
cumulative.  Thus the situation has the appearance of being a growing problem.  In
actuality in the USA, MTCT of hiv/aids is declining.  I have Florida statistics (a
32 page report) and the decline has been dramatic since 1992.  The state of
Florida is one of the top states in the USA for MTCT of hiv/aids.  I believe in
2002 there was about 35 infants diagnosed with hiv. (a peak year)  In Africa
statistics are often not kept and very few people are tested (because testing
costs money).
Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html