Flash-Heating Breast Milk Removes HIV

Recent studies showed that exclusive breastfeeding for six months reduced the risk of HIV transmission from mother to infant down to four percent, whereas supplementation with artificial milk or solid foods posed three or four times that risk of transmission. In developed countries with access to safe water supplies and artificial baby milk, one might wonder why a mother would risk even a four percent chance of transmission. It’s a vital issue though for mothers in undeveloped countries where there are barriers to safe water and affordable artificial milk and where infants are at significant risk of death from diarrhea and other conditions that breast milk helps prevent and treat.

A study just released today provides promise for eliminating the risk of HIV transmission through breast milk altogether. Researchers found that flash-heating expressed milk killed the HIV. Flash-heating is a form of pasteurization that eliminates harmful elements yet retains many of the beneficial antibodies and nutritional properties of the breast milk. It’s similar to pasteurization methods used in human milk banks yet it can be implemented in developing countries with locally-available glass jars, cooking pans and heating elements.

“Many people in this field were skeptical that this would work,” said Barbara Abrams, UC Berkeley professor of epidemiology and maternal and child health, and senior author on the study. “We wanted to be sure that there was scientific evidence that flash-heated milk was truly free of HIV, nutritious and immunologically beneficial. This study was done in response to the concerns of the mothers in Zimbabwe, and in addition provides evidence that field studies are warranted.”

Yang, Sarah. “HIV in breastmilk killed by flash-heating, new study finds.” UC Berkeley News, May 21, 2007.

After the success of this preliminary study, field trials will be conducted in the homes of women in Africa. I can see some people questioning a mother’s ability to hand-express and flash-heat her breast milk, but really, hand-expression is easy to learn and flash-heating seems simple and not very time-consuming at all. Besides, what mother wouldn’t do what it takes to prevent HIV transmission and protect her child from diarrhea and other potentially fatal ailments?