Flash-heating breastmilk feasible for HIV-infected mothers in poor countries

An international research team led by University of California, Davis has found that the World Health Organization's recommendation to flash-heat breastmilk is feasible for mothers in sub-Saharan Africa. Flash-heating breastmilk, which involves expressing the breastmilk into a glass jar and placing it into a pot of water until it boils, reduces the transmission of HIV to infants. While previous studies showed that this process successfully inactivated HIV in breastmilk, there was still a question of whether or not women would be willing and able to successfully practice the technique. The new study showed that mothers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania -- a resource-poor urban area -- could follow the protocol consistently over an average of about 10 weeks, with some utilizing the method up to a full year. "These findings show that the World Health Organization's recommendations are feasible in a real-world setting," Caroline Chantry, lead author of the study, said.