[stretchmark]

I recently had an eye-opening conversation with a woman I know about breastfeeding and AIDS.
I wanted to check and see what you all knew about this.
I am opening an advocacy store soon for breastfeeding and was telling her about it. She is from South Africa and told me about the AIDS epidemic there and also told me this: THat 1 in 3 people have AIDS there and the moms take that medication to prevent transfer to their babies in utero. Since the country is so poor, they cannot afford formula and so breastfeed their babies passing the virus on to them. I didn't think it passed through the milk but I guess it does. Is there somewhere I can read about this? What do you all know about this?

 

[kofduke]

I read a study about this a while ago...I hope someone has a better link, as I don't want to give you bad information on an important subject.

My understanding is that while babies are being exclusively b/fed, the risk of transmission of the virus is fairly low, even though it is present in the b/m. However, once they start with ANY formula or food, the risk of transmission through the b/m is greatly increased, because the lining of the stomach changes in a way as to permit the virus to go through.

In the U.S., HIV+ status is one of the conditions for which docs. recommend against b/fing.

 

[Janice in Canada]

This is where to look at this topic:
http://www.anotherlook.org/

Janice

 

[Greaseball]

Check out the Mothering archives:
http://www.mothering.com/12-0-0/html...0/12-3-0.shtml

Also, the World Health Organization says that the risk of death from formula-feeding is higher than the risk of HIV transmission through milk. (This comes from Milk, Money and Madness.

 

[elelvee]

This will be sure to cause some controversy but

you should read www.virusmyth.com (works if you end with com, net, org, or info). There is simply too much information available in too many places for me to summarize,

but let me summarize it anyway. The whole AIDS thing, the disease itself, the HIV theory, the HIV tests, and "medicines" used to treat it, are a fraud something on the order of the vaccination system. It's a medicine in search of a disease and something to do to groups w/in society that you hate.

 

[guestmama9924]

So sad. Not only is formula not economically possible for many women, it is also a social stigma and giant "I have HIV" banner. Many women in HIV areas know that if you are carrying around formula, you have HIV, so many will BF with or without meds. There is much debate about transmission rates, which last I read was about .74% and risk ( read not the disease, just the risk) increases with each month of BF.