HIV Transmission Through Breastfeeding – A Review of Available Evidence

Exclusive breastfeeding – breastfeeding with no other food or drink, not even water – is the ideal mode of infant feeding for the first six months of life. For optimal growth, development and health, infants should be exclusively breastfed for their first six months, and should then receive nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods, while breastfeeding continues up to 24 months or beyond.
With the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, however, and the recognition that HIV-infected mothers can transmit HIV to their infants through breastfeeding, specific recommendations apply to infants born to HIV-infected mothers. The overall aim of these recommendations is to achieve the ultimate goal of increasing child survival, while reducing HIV infection in infants and young children.

A teljes cikk a WHO oldalán olvasható.