Mellanie that is very distressing news for your client. I have heard that there are a lot of false positives with this testing. Could she have the test repeated - perhaps using her fresh blood - at a different laboratory? Just to be sure... I see you've already received the infor for the La Trobe website - you have to be quick :-) Nikki I wonder if Lawrence explains why receiving breastmilk is absolutely contraindicated if the virus can be killed by pasteurisation, which it appears the mother in this circumstance would like to do? JT May says "HTLV-1 (all cell-associated) is destroyed within 20 minutes at 56°C (or 10 minutes at 90°C), or by freezing at -20°C for 12 hours. Cell associated HIV provirus DNA is destroyed by bringing milk to the boil. Boiling milk destroys the immunoglubulins, lactoferrin, lysozyme and the milk's bacteriostaic activity, but not the peptide beta defensin-1." Does that peptide beta defensin-1 have something to do with maintaining the virility of the virus? Just airing my ignorance here! Also HIV+ isn't a definite contraindication to breastfeeding. The latest UNAIDS leaflet only recommends cessation of breastfeeding if replacement feeding is "acceptable, feasible, affordable, sustainable and safe" - which isn't the case for the majority of the women affected by HIV. In this circumstance exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months does have very good outcomes. And again, that's breastfeeding - breastmilk feeding of an HIV+ mother's treated breastmilk is safe. *************************************** Denise Fisher Health e-Learning http://www.health-e-learning.com [log in to unmask] **************************************** *********************************************** 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