I fear we are witnessing the start of a new initiative from the industry,
who sees a chance to rehabilitate its image by this particularly repugnant
route. If artificial milks are made readily available, the argument for
continuing to treat mothers with antiretroviral drugs after they have given
birth is weakened.
I found some relevant posts in the archives, from Pamela Morrison in
Zimbabwe on October 7 this year. It is worth reading, for those of you who,
like me, were no mail that week. It is to be found at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0010A&L=lactnet&P=R10263
Pamela was responding to a post from Helen Armstrong on October 5 on the
same topic
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0010a&L=lactnet&F=&S=&P=195
37, in which Helen sought information on women who had fed their babies
entirely on expressed breast milk without the use of electric pumps. This,
in my mind, is a real concern, and one which Pamela responded to in her
post.
Ted Greiner sent this out to his mailing list some weeks back, and I haven't
seen anything about it on Lactnet so I am passing it along now.
"HIV can be transmitted by breastfeeding. The virus is inactivated by
heating. A simple and inexpensive method has been devised by which expressed
breastmilk may be pasteurised in a domestic setting. The method uses the
principle of heat transfer from 450 ml of water heated to boiling point in
an aluminium pot to a smaller volume of milk in a glass jar placed into the
water (Pretoria Pasteurisation). The aim of this study was to test the
reliability of Pretoria Pasteurisation under a range of conditions. Pretoria
Pasteurisation was performed using differing starting values for each of the
following parameters: volume of milk (between 50 and 150 ml);
initial temperature of milk (between 37°C and the ambient temperature);
and ambient temperature. Each of the parameters was varied within the range
indicated while all other conditions were kept constant. A graph of milk and
water temperature against time was constructed with 95% confidence
intervals. The ideal temperature range was considered to be between 56 and
62.5°C. Milk temperature remained between 56 and 62.5°C for between 10 and
15 min depending on the combination of variables. The peak temperature and
duration of time in the ideal temperature range was minimally sensitive to
volume of milk, starting
temperature of milk, and ambient temperature. Pretoria Pasteurisation is
feasible and reliable under a range of conditions. The method requires
refinement and further testing under different conditions."
Journal of Tropical Pediatrics, Volume 46, Issue 4, pp. 219-223: Abstract.
Pretoria pasteurisation: a potential method for the reduction of postnatal
mother to child transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus. BS
Jeffery, and KG Mercer, respectively of Department of Obstetrics and
Gynecology, University of Pretoria, Kalafong Hospital, Private Bag X396,
Pretoria, South Africa 0001, and MRC, Material and Infant Health Care
Strategies Research Unit, Pretoria, South Africa.
Corresponding author is Bridget S Jeffery, Tel: 27 12 373 8041, Fax: 27 12
373 0825, E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Greiner included the URL to an editorial discussion about this article:
http://www3.oup.co.uk/tropej/online/chat/pom.html.
Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway, where the sun was out for nearly an hour this morning,
although the rain continued to fall throughout that time. At least we don't
have to shovel it.
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