Babies On The Breast Of HIV Moms

Babies On The Breast Of HIV Moms (

Late postnatal infections occurred throughout the duration of breastfeeding, with children becoming infected at any time, from when they were 4 weeks old until they were 18 months old. In all, late postnatal transmissions occurred among 42 percent of the 993 children for whom timing of HIV infection was known.

The analysis also revealed that children of mothers who had low levels of CD4 cells were more likely to become infected with HIV than were children whose mothers had higher CD4 levels.

"The association of lower maternal CD4+ counts and a higher risk of transmission was not unexpected," Dr. Read said. "Individuals with lower CD4+ counts may have higher concentrations of HIV in the bloodstream and in breastmilk."

The researchers do not know why male infants were more likely to develop late postnatal infections than female infants were. A possible explanation is that, due to gender differences in immune functioning, girls are less susceptible to the infection after 4 weeks of age than are boys. The researchers wrote that other studies have found that the immune systems of infected male infants vary somewhat from the immune systems of infected female infants.