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Solar-Powered Device Decontaminates HIV-Infected Breast Milk
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By Bjorn Falck Madsen

FREDENSBORG, Denmark, Sep 07 (Reuters Health) - A Danish invention could mean
a major breakthrough in the fight against HIV transmission in developing
countries.

Pasteurizing HIV-infected breast milk at 60 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes
using a solar-powered device effectively inactivates HIV as well as
pathogenic bacteria, researchers have found. The device is expected not only
to provide health benefits but also to reduce healthcare costs substantially.

The nursing mother is able to operate the breast milk pasteurizer herself,
and the annual cost per child is approximately $100, Dr. Anders Fjendbo
Jorgensen, of Kolding Hospital, in Denmark, told Reuters Health in an
interview. Compared with the price of providing an HIV-infected nursing
mother with antiretroviral medication, at a cost of $3000 to $6000 for half a
year, the pasteurizing device is a considerably more manageable and
cost-effective solution, he pointed out.

With solar pasteurization of breast milk, antibodies in the breast milk are
preserved so that the health advantages of breast-feeding are maintained, Dr.
Fjendbo Jorgensen said. "We hope that the breast milk device will soon get
introduced in countries where breast milk from a mother is used to feed
others' children. This includes hospitals in Africa, South America and the
Far East," the Danish physician said.

"At the moment, about 120 women in the Muhimbili Medical Centre, in Dar es
Salaam, are [expressing] breast milk and pasteurizing it for their own
children or children that belong to others, mainly premature babies in
incubators, children with cleft palate, or similar disadvantages. However, we
still need to find out how easy it is for individuals to handle this task in
their own home," he commented.

Dr. Fjendbo Jorgensen, who is a specialist in tropical and infectious
diseases and has been working for The National AIDS Control Programme in
Tanzania for 3 years, is presently in charge of a group of researchers in
Denmark and Tanzania involved in the use of solar energy for health purposes.

He noted that the pharmaceutical industry has not been supportive in
promoting the pasteurizing concept, a low-tech source of prevention that, on
a long-term basis, would reduce the need for medical drugs to manage AIDS.





Nikki Lee RN, MSN, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CIMI
craniosacral therapy practitioner; childbirth educator
Elkins Park (a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; northeastern USA)
supporter of the WHO Code and the Mother Friendly Childbirth Initiative

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