Karen wrote:
"Lactnetters,

Well, here's a total fantasy, but just popped into my head.

If a breastfeeding mom is exposed or infected, her milk has active
anti-SARS ab's.  Wonder if there are therapeutic possibilities for use
of bmilk for the >60 yr old patients whose mortality rate is the
highest?"

Hi Karen,
Your suggestion actually isn't a total fantasy, because they are already
using the blood of the SARS survivors as part of a new treatment here in
Hong Kong - with a higher than normal recovery rate.  I think the
doctors would even entertain the idea you propose, if there was
breastmilk available to experiment with.  So far, to my knowledge, there
have been no reports of breastfeeding women infected with SARS (in HK)
but I would love to see this treatment used on the high-risk patients.

On another note, there is a SARS FAQ column in the english daily
newspaper, edited by a doctor, and she recently published a statement
from La Leche League Hong Kong, addressing the concerns of the general
bfing population (not confirmed cases) - which encouraged mothers to
continue breastfeeding.  We were very excited - and to top it off, she
published the statement in full - didn't edit out a single word, or
paraphrase anything!  *And* she published the local LLL contact info at
the end of it all.  It was a refreshing day - a day something good came
out of SARS.

Tanja Knutson
LLL Hong Kong


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