This is one of the studies, the other one I have it a t work. Can you all please
give me your input? thanks..Betty
HPV found in breast milk, clarifying yet another way in which pathogens likely
spread from parent to child
Author: Amy Proal
31
Jul
2008
How are the pathogens that cause Th1 disease passed from parent to child?
For one thing, it’s quite probable that the pathogens are able to survive in the
sperm and egg. It’s equally true that the pathogens are simply passed among
people in close contact, and infants and their parents are together quite
often.
But the results of a recent study show it’s also likely that some of the chronic
bacterial species that cause inflammatory disease can remain alive in breast
milk and thus be passed from mother to child by breast feeding. While the
study, conducted by researchers at the University of Turku in Finland,
indicates that a virus can be passed in breast milk during feeding, the fact
that the Th1 pathogens have evolved so many survival mechanisms and are
such persistent pathogens strongly suggests that at least some of them
possess the same capability.
More specifically, the Finnish research team found that Human papillomavirus
type 16 (also called high-risk HPV-16), which has been linked to cervical
cancer, can be detected in human breast milk collected during the early period
after a woman delivers her baby. According to the team, the fact that viral
particles survive in breast milk greatly implies that infants can acquire oral HPV
infection via breast feeding.
HPV attacking a cellThe findings are supported by previous research in which
Syrjanen, a pathologist at the University of Turku, and colleagues found
evidence of transmission of HPV from an infected mother to her newborn
infant. The discovery led them to initiate the Finnish HPV Family Study, the
goal of which is to elucidate the transmission modes of HPV between family
members.
For their current report, Syrjanen’s team looked for HPV in cervical scrapings
obtained from 223 mothers and in oral scrapings from 87 fathers. Then, they
performed HPV testing of the breast milk samples 3 days postpartum. High-risk
HPV DNA was detected in 10 milk samples (4.5 percent) and DNA sequencing
from nine samples confirmed that the virus was indeed high-risk HPV-16.
Interestingly, a statistically significant correlation was also found between
HPV in milk and the presence of high risk-HPV in oral scrapings obtained from
the father.
According to Syrjanen, this means transmission could have occurred by the
spouse, from the mouth to the nipple and then to the breast, or it could have
occurred from the mother’s hands. If HPV and other pathogens can remain
alive in the sperm, it could also be hypothesized that some fathers simply pass
their infants HPV while they are in the womb. Since chances are high that the
father has also passed the virus to the mother (or it could have been the
other way around!) HPV could end up in her breast milk as well.
So why are so many adults infected with HPV in the first place? It boils down
to the reality that many of them also harbor high levels of the Th1 pathogens.
Since the Th1 pathogens are able to create ligands that slow the activity of
the Vitamin D Receptor and subsequently the innate immune response, their
presence creates an atmosphere in which it’s also easy for co-infectious
agents like HPV to survive.
One thing’s for sure. Pathogens are stealthy. The conventional belief that
washing hands and covering the mouth after sneezing largely prevents their
spread will almost certainly be replaced by the knowledge that they can be
passed much more easily among family members. So it’s not defective genes
we’re sharing…it’s crafty pathogens!
Filed under: News Flash, familial aggregat
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