HIV and Breastfeeding: The untold story

In the early 1980s it was discovered that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, could be passed through a mother’s milk to her baby. Almost overnight in the industrialised countries, and later in the African countries most ravaged by HIV, breastfeeding became an endangered practice. But in the rush to reduce transmission of HIV, everything we already knew about breastfeeding’s life-saving effects was overlooked, with devastating consequences for mothers and babies.

In HIV and Breastfeeding – the ...