My understanding (someone please correct me if I am wrong) is that IgM cannot
cross the placenta thus any IgM detected in a newborn is due to infection in
utero. Mother had a blood transfusion during the birth of this infant.  Three
weeks later this infant's blood is testing positive for West Nile virus.
Wouldn't one wonder whether it was the blood transfusion in the mother during
labor that caused this infection and not breastmilk?

This is the same problem with hiv.  The initial cases back in the 80's all
seemed to hinge around a mother having a difficult birth and ending up with
blood transfusions.  The case of Ariel Glaser (daughter of Elizabeth Glaser)
who is considered by authorities to have gotten hiv from breastfeeding was
born after her mother suffered major complications during Ariel's birth and
had to be given 7 pints of blood before her birth.  Isn't a transfusion a
more likely transmitter of disease than breastfeeding, when an infant during
birth/labor is still connected directly to the mother's bloodstream?
Particularly, if a mother has complications at the birth, how much
breastfeeding is really going on anyway with these moms?  Maybe in the
baby-friendly hospitals breastfeeding would be intiated and maintained.  But
in most of the hospitals that I know of very little breastfeeding would have
happened in the initial days after such a traumatic birth.  Yet instead of
blaming the blood transfusion, breastfeeding is immediately blamed.

If a newborn infant has IgM antibodies in their blood, how can we say that
breastfeeding is the cause?  They obviously received the infection in utero,
during birth not during breastfeeding.  Unless my information on IgM
antibodies in newborns is incorrect??? I am assuming a newborn would be an
infant from 0-6 weeks old.  Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html