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| | | ![]() Research Reveals Frequency Of HIV Transmission LONDON, ENGLAND -- Aug. 21, 1998 -- HIV-1 infection can be transmitted to babies through breastfeeding. In this week's issue of The Lancet, Dr. Valériane Leroy and colleagues report on the frequency of such infection in developed and developing countries. The investigators followed up children enrolled into studies in Europe, the United States, Rwanda, Kenya and the Ivory Coast. All children were uninfected at 2.5 months of age. Of children in the developed countries, less than five percent overall were breastfed and no children were infected with HIV-1. In the developing countries, however, in which breastfeeding is the norm, HIV-1 infection occurred in about five percent of all children. The investigators calculated that if breastfeeding had stopped at age four months, transmission would have occurred in no infants and in three of 902 if it had stopped at six months. This finding has important implications for public-health strategies in developing countries.
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