In a message dated 11/25/99 10:27:31 AM Mountain Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< The hospital in which I work as an infant feeding specialist will soon
 begin offering routine HIV and Hepatitis B testing to all pregnant
 women. This test will  not be compulsory. All staff have been having
 training to enable them to discuss this issue with the women.
  >>

My heart is pounding as this is my first post on LACTNET and on such a
volatile subject!

I am curious how many HIV+ moms breastfeeding professionals come into contact
with in the US?  It seems as though the two major risk groups (homosexuals
and IV drug users) are still the majority of the positives, and I have read
somewhere that 96% of these are men.

I also wonder about the false positive rate of the HIV test.  I happened to
see a presentation by a supposedly HIV+ mom (she was also in the article
about breastfeeding and HIV in Mothering magazine a bit ago).  She has nursed
a child for I believe around a year who did not contract HIV, and she
believes her HIV+ result is from her own childhood bout of Hep B.  I realize
this is one person's story, but there are other folks and groups who are
rumbling about such situations.

I have an article that suggests that there are some 64 conditions that can
lead to a false positive on an HIV test (I admit at this writing I can't
remember *which* test this is), including pregnancy.  This would seem to
raise some concern about prenatal HIV testing (especially if and where it
might become compulsory) and further impact on breastfeeding.

Jeannine DiPerna
Lactivist
Bailey, Colorado

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