I found an report from the Durban AIDS conference that speaks about
transmition through breastfeeding and briefly touches on the issue of
increased maternal deaths from AIDS in breastfeeding mothers.

http://www.medscape.com/Medscape/CNO/2000/AIDS/Story.cfm?story_id=1470

"Dr. Nduati reported extremely worrying data on maternal mortality in the
Kenyan cohort.[16] The cumulative mortality was higher in the breast-feeding
arm compared with the formula-feeding arm. At 24 months, the maternal
mortality rates were 10.5% in the breast-feeding arm and 3.8% in the
formula-feeding arm. There was a 3-fold increased risk of dying among women
in the breast-feeding arm (RR, 3.2; 95% CI, 1.3-8.1). Although this was a
randomized controlled trial with an intent-to-treat analysis, other
confounders such as maternal illness, viral load, and CD4+ counts were not
controlled for. Maternal death was also strongly associated with subsequent
infant death (RR, 7.8)."

Please go the the web location and read over the parts related to
breastfeeding.  This will clarify some of the posts recently seen on
Lactnet.  It is disturbing, to say the least.

Barb Berges BS, RN, IBCLC
Rochester, New York

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