June 18, 2004 After four weeks of age, infants who breast feed
from mothers infected with HIV continue to be at risk for
infection with HIV for as long as they breastfeed, according to
an analysis conducted and funded by the National Institute of
Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of
Health. Previously, researchers thought the risk for being
infected with the virus from breast milk diminished as an infant
grew older. The analysis determined that a significant
proportion of infants — 42 percent — were infected by breast
feeding after they were 4 weeks old. The study also found that
infants were at greater risk for contracting the virus through
breastfeeding if their mothers had low levels of CD4+ cells, an
immune cell targeted by the AIDS virus. Moreover, male infants
were more likely to contract the virus through breastfeeding
than were female infants. The analysis was conducted by NICHD
and the Ghent Working Group on HIV in Women and Children,
appears in the June 15 issue of The Jo