Coming out of lurkdom to share the following information:

Received a copy of the Hepatitis Foundation International "Washington
Report - Excerpts from Hepatitis C Consensus Conference."  Dr. Miriam
Alter, Ph.D., Chief, Epidiomology Section, Hepatitis Branch, CDC wrote
an article on Hep. C epidemiology which states: "An HCV infected
pregnant woman has an average 5-6% risk of transmitting the virus to her
newborn. When the virus is detectable in the mother's blood at birth,
the average transmission rate increases to 9%. Co-infection with HIV
raises the transmission rate to 14-17%. Breast feeding is not associated
with HCV transmission. In the short-term, infants of HCV infected
mothers do well. The long term outcome is not known."

HFI has a well-organized and informative website at
http://www.HepFI.org. They have a simple chart describing the different
strains of hepatitis, including transmission routes. Unfortunately, they
don't specifically state that breastfeeding is/isn't a route of
transmission. I've e-mailed them requesting that this be added; I'll bet
they'd make some changes if they heard from more than 1 person (hint,
hint).

Now I need some information please:

I had the opportunity to hear Molly Pessl speak at a conference
yesterday. She was great! So was Linda Black, MD, as usual. Molly
mentioned something that amazed but didn't surprise me. She said that
cow-based lactose-free formula was introduced to the marketplace on the
basis of anectodal stories from parents, NOT supportive scientific
research. Does anyone else have information on this?

Thanks!
Diana Dietz, RN, BSN
Diana Designs - designs that celebrate breastfeeding and mothers
Http://pw2.netcom.com/~ddesign1/diana.htm