I listened to the pediatric chat line for a while last night and it only
served to strengthen my conviction that human milk banking in most parts
of the developing world is just not practical and probably dangerous.

  No one knows what temperature for how long it takes to kill HIV in
human milk.

   Someone made the comparison of milk banks and blood banks and the
strict standards of both.
I was a Peace Corps volunteer at a teaching hospital in Zaire (Congo) .I
taught microbiology and blood banking. We were the best in the country
but we fell far short of U.S. blood banking standards. They were
unattainable with the equipment and supplies we could get. We could not
properly screen donors. Always,the need for transfusion outweighed the
risk of transmitting disease. This was in 1982-84 when AIDS was just
beginning to rear its ugly head.
 After years of poltical unrest,this blood bank is no longer functioning.
If they resume, will they be able to screen for AIDS ???

   Many of these problems would apply to milk banking, lack of
understanding , equipment, supplies, collection containers,power, water,
trasportation, sanitation on and on.

   What I find most offensive about the NY Times article was that it
seemed to indicate that we "lactation people" would advocate
"breastfeeding at all costs" That is not the case.

     This issue reminds me of the nightmarish triage decisions I was
forced to make in Zaire.
 I do not think of the HIV positive women and say  "Just breastfeed even
though you risk transmitting a fatal disease to your infant"  Instead,I
think of the infants and  say "What is their very best shot at survival?"
   Breastfeeding.


Mary Graden
Returned Peace corps Volunteer
Microbiologist
LLL Leader Idaho