Breastfeeding has always been recommended as the most beneficial first food for infants, especially in countries where water may be contaminated with bacteria that can lead to diarrhea and other potentially life-threatening diseases.Exclusively breastfeeding infants for the first six months of life is recommended for all moms and babies, but new research published by The Lancet earlier this year has shown that mothers who are HIV positive and exclusively breastfeed their babies for six months can dramatically reduce the risk of passing the HIV virus on to their babies.

I find this information mind-blowing considering previous research indicated the risk of a mom transmitting the virus to her baby was quite high, between 10 and 20 percent. The catch with the early research on HIV transmission through breast milk did not distinguish between babies who where breastfed exclusively and those babies who received breast milk and formula.Hoosen Coovadia, MBBS, MD, a paediatrician and expert in perinatal HIV transmission and a group of researchers from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, have conducted the first study comparing the transmission rates between babies who were exclusively breastfed and babies who were given breast milk and formula or solid foods.

The results speak clearly. After three months, the HIV transmission rate among the exclusively breastfed babies was 4.04 percent. The babies who were fed breast milk and formula were twice as likely to become infected with the HIV virus. Babies who were given solid foods, such as porridge, were 11 times as likely to become infected with the virus when compared to the exclusively breastfed babies.

Coovadia and team also discovered a difference in infant mortality at the three month mark. Babies who were exclusively breastfed had a death rate of only 6.1 percent at three months, whereas babies who received other forms of nutrition in addition to breast milk had a death rate of 15.1 percent. Not only does exclusive breastfeeding reduce the HIV infection rate in babies, it reduces the mortality in infants as well.

There is always a risk for an HIV positive mom to pass the virus onto her breastfeeding baby, but these findings refute all those who adamantly and actively discourage HIV positive moms from breastfeeding.This news is mind-blowing and a positive step for HIV positive moms who want to breastfeed. I am not the only one who feels these new findings are staggering, apparently the World Health Organization does as well because they are reviewing and revising their guidelines on HIV prevention for newborn babies.I look forward to reading their new guidelines.