Subject: | |
From: | |
Reply To: | |
Date: | Sat, 29 Mar 1997 22:20:33 -0500 |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
I've been contacted by a nursing mom of a two month old baby. She screened
positive for Hep C at the birth of her baby, but her liver function tests
were high. Her medical team contacted the CDC for an update, then gave her
the go-ahead to nurse. Everything went well until last week when her liver
enzymes tested high. Her doctors believe that the virus is active, and
both her pedi and her OB/Gyn now recommend that she stop nursing. Mom
really wants to continue nursing if it is safe. She is quite worried about
the safety of formula.
Here are her questions:
1) Is it safe for her to continue nursing?
2) Have there been any studies of the risk of transmission of HepC in
nursing women in the *acute phase* of illness?
3) What is the average length of the acute phase?
4) Would it be possible to heat-treat her expressed milk to kill the
virus? Could this be easily done at home?
5) Is there any benefit to having herself & baby tested for HepC virus?
6) What other alternatives might she be overlooking?
Thanks so much for any help you can give this distraught mom!
Cindy Turner-Maffei
Massachusetts, USA
|
|
|