Hep C
I noticed someone wanting info re Hep C, HIV etc recently. There is very
little well conducted research IMO. I had cause to hit the refs last year
when a family member was pregnant with no 3 - she's Hep C antibody +.

The hosp staff treated her as if she was a (19Century) leper and used the
full gowns and gloves bit, special cutlery, isolation etc. They insisted
she was appalling for breastfeeding, despite the fact that her husband had
contacted all the reasonable sources of info and concluded they were safe.

She had contracted Hep (C?) some 20 yrs ago as an errant teenager. Neither
of her two children nor husband have antibodies (nor does the now 16mo).

They contacted the Sydney Hep C support group, relevant medical experts
(selected from referees of major hosps in Sydney), and I provided them with
a letter to the Lancet; Ogasawara et al, (341);p561 Feb 27, 1993 saying that
in his study of 26 mothers breastmilk - NO TRACES OF VIRUS WAS FOUND OVER A
3-20mo STUDY! I am bursting to see the full paper! Any refs out there?

10 actually carried virus, the rest were antibody +. All of these former
mothers had virus in their saliva (no-one wore masks to deal with my
relative mind you and for saliva based infection it's probably wise).
All of the babies had antibody which gradually disappeared.

There is another paper by Thaler et al Lancet:338, July 6 1991;pp17-18
which is disturbing but flawed. 10 mothers - all with multiple high risk
factors of HIV etc - which establishes that mothers can give their babies
Hep C as it has been before in Thaler et al Lancet 1991(338), 17-18 (which
I also think is a bit dodgy - not well enough analysed on the risk factor
front). The methods of transmission are not clear in these two papers.

____________
Fees for Lactnet.

I didn't see the orig post, but now that I'm sysadmin for parent-l I
understand the work it takes. But - could you get a grant for it?
Or get some more support out of the hosp, or somewhere? It's a
fabulous resource. Or run it as a newsgroup?

_____________
Cancer Medication

A question just popped up on [log in to unmask] (if you're interested in
the address - traffic awfully heavy at present and I'm too busy reading it
to fix up the digest) on this medication. Any info appreciated :-)

>>>>>>>>
A friend of mine will be receiving a single dose of Methotrexate, a cancer
med, tomorrow.  She has a nursing child age 21 months.  She knows she will
not be able to bf after receiving the shot, but does not know how long she
will have to keep her son off the breast before the med is out of her
system.  Is anyone familiar with bf and cancer meds?  She does not want to
wean her son if she only has to stop nursing for a day or two -- he is just
not ready.  Any info on this would be *greatly* appreciated.
Thanks,Pat, [log in to unmask] <<<<<

-----------
BTW NMAA made me a Community Educator yesterday :-) I'm too busy doing it
to even contemplate counsellor training anymore - no counselling - yay!
(is that too much of a cop out?)


_______________________________________________________________________
Narelle Clark
   o        o     Underfed, underwashed, underslept - but well loved.
  \ / o  o \ /          It's great being a parent!
  ` '` '` '` '
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