Loading...
Most studies of HIV transmission via breast-feeding have included only women who were HIV-positive at the time of childbirth. Thus, little is known about the transmission risk associated with breast-feeding in women who acquire HIV postnatally.
In this sobering retrospective case series, investigators describe 106 children in China who were exclusively breast-fed by mothers who acquired HIV from postpartum blood transfusions (given because of excessive bleeding during delivery). All the transfusions occurred between 1994 and 2000, and all were traced to paid blood donors, even though the Chinese government banned the sale of blood products starting in 1995 and the clinical use of purchased whole blood starting in 1998.
Thirty-eight children t…