Cathy & Morgan Responding now to Cathy's answer, actually there is one fairly recent study which showed, amazingly, that the rate of cumulative and postpartum transmission of HIV was higher for formula-fed babies than for exclusively breastfed babies. In the DREAM study women received HAART from the 25th week of gestation, and their infants received post-exposure prophylaxis. At age 1 month, HIV-1 transmission rates were 1.2% among breastfed infants and 0.8% among formula-fed infants. The cumulative incidence rate at 6 months of age was 2.7% for formula-fed infants and 2.2% for breastfed infants, with the postpartum transmission rate at age 6 months, being 0.8% among breastfed infants of women receiving HAART and 1.8% among formula-fed infants.There was a trend for HIV infection rates to be slightly greater among formula-fed infants, but overall mother-to-child transmission rates in both cohorts were extremely low. It was concluded that these results were comparable to those from developed countries (just under 2%). Breastfeeding among HIV infected mothers receiving HAART posed no additional risk of late postnatal HIV transmission to the infant by 6 months of age. The authors did say that implementation of the strategy of formula-feeding was very difficult because of cost and "reliability" (the formula-feeding women will often mix breast and formula-feeding) and noted that formula-feeding was probably less effective for this reason when formula was available. The authors conclude that provision of HAART was achievable in this very resource-poor setting, and for the same cost as provision of formula. A landmark study! Ref: Palombi L, Marazzi MC, Voetberg A, Magid NA. Treatment acceleration program and the experience of the DREAM program in prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. AIDS. 2007 Jul;21 Suppl 4:S65-71. Pamela Co-coordinator, WABA Breastfeeding and HIV Task Force. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2007 11:08:20 -0600 From: Cathy Liles <[log in to unmask]> Subject: HIV & breastfeeding babies Hi Morgan, I am not familiar with any studies that show HIV transmission is higher with formula-fed babies. There is evidence that mortality is higher. There is also growing evidence that EXCLUSIVE breastfeeding transmission rates are about the same as replacement milk fed babies through at least 6 months. If you are interested in this issue, check out AnotherLook at Breastfeeding and HIV/AIDS www.anotherlook.org Cathy Liles *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome