One of the many things that struck me about this article is that the authors
write about Busingye Scovia who is "infected with the AIDS virus and her
baby, Latshia who tested positive for AIDS."  I have to ask, does Busingye
Sovia have AIDS? Do they mean she tests positive for hiv?  If so, you can
test positive for hiv but not have AIDS.  How can  the baby, Latshia, test
positive for AIDS?  Do they mean that this baby tests positive for hiv or
does this baby have AIDS?  Don't know.  Do the authors even understand the
basics of their topic? One is considered to have AIDS, if one tests positive
for the HIV antibodies and has one or more of the 29 official AIDS-defining
conditions.  How do we know how this baby became "infected?" Most
transmissions occurr during pregnancy and delivery.  What tests did they do
to determine that this infant was infected by breastfeeding? Was this mother
exclusively breastfeeding?  Exclusive breastfeeding in Africa is not common.
Testing in newborns and young infants is unreliable because of maternal
antibodies.(PCR tests are unreliable and were never intended to be used as a
diagnostic)

The article states the statistics that worldwide 3.4 million children were
infected by their mothers and of those 3.4 million 1.1 million to 1.7 million
were infected through breastfeeding.  What?  That's up to 50% of the children
infected by breastfeeding. Then they go on to state that 90 of every 1000
pregnant women are infected with hiv virus in Sub-Saharan Africa and of those
90 pregnancies, 27-36 babies are expected to contract the hiv virus from
their mothers either in utero, during labor or through breastfeeding.  And of
those babies 9-18 are expected to contract hiv through breastfeeding.  That
isn't 50% transmission rate through breastfeeding in my math book!  And,
furthermore, in developed countries, women are absolutely discouraged from
breastfeeding.  So their statistics look to me like they are way off without
even factoring in that in Africa few people are tested for hiv because they
can't afford the testing.  There source for this information is UNAIDS.  Then
in the very next paragraph they say that studies suggest that only about 15%
of pregnant women with hiv will transmit the virus to their children through
breastfeeding. Confusing...yes, because at this time no one knows for certain
the transmission rate of hiv through breastfeeding.

In writing about the UN agencies policy since 1998 of "informed choice" given
to hiv-positive mothers about infant feeding, they state, "the policy says
nothing about how the desperately poor HIV-infected women who do choose
formula are supposed to get it."  A desperately poor HIV-infected women
should have been counseled to breastfeed exclusively!!!The risk of morbidity
and mortality are far greater from infant formula than being positive for
hiv.  This is the policy set forth by the UN agencies. The slant the article
gives seems to be that poor HIV-infected mothers should be given access to
free formula.

The article seems to me like an attempt to persuade people that we should
open the door to infant formula in Africa.  The door is slightly ajar because
the UN agencies opened it in 1998 by allowing a confusing policy called
"informed choice."  But now the pressure is on to throw it wide open.

No one talks about the risks of infant formula.  Nor do they even talk about
the fact that infant fomula is genetically engineered.  Or that it is spiked
with lactoferrin (bovine or some synthetic version of human lactoferrin).
Nor do they talk about the reason for spiking it with lactoferrin.  We seem
bound to a policy that essentially puts more infants at risk for death and
disease.  Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC

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