To give an example from the literature about the risks that can arise from
sterilization in an epidemic:
 Tassovatch and Kotsitch (1961) described an enteric epidemic in a Special
Care nursery in Belgrade in 1959-1960. Every effort was made to disinfect
the area and maintain infection control  but still the epidemic continued.
The authors noticed that the SKU infants fed directly at the breast were
free of illness, despite the same exposure. It was only among the infants
fed expressed breastmilk (EBM) that a number of infants became ill. The EBM
was routinely brought to the boil before being fed to infants. As Naomi
Bar-Yam stated, breastmilk is affected by heat and at such high
temperatures, too many protective factors were lost for the babies to be
protected. Back then, not as much was known about the components of human
milk, but the authors were aware of the bifidus factor and its importance.
To preserve this, they stopped heat treating the milk and gave it raw.
After that, no more infants became sick.

The article is in French, published in a French journal.

Virginia

Dr Virginia Thorley, OAM, PhD, IBCLC, FILCA
Ipswich, Queensland, Australia
and wider afield on sage.fm

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