Thursday 13 October 2016

LATEST NEWS ON HIV INFECTED MOTHERS

There is a brochure put out by the National AIDS Council of Papua New Guinea on breast feeding by an HIV infected mother. It is the same basic advice of several years ago with one major and worrying difference.

The advice was that the HIV mother should be on ARV treatment and give the baby exclusive breast milk for 6 months. Then the change is made to mashed vegetables and water.

Babies must have breast milk as this is their source of antibodies and vitamins. A baby's immune system does not produce antibodies until the child is almost 2 years old. The antibodies of the mother are used by the baby's immune system in the early stages.

But now the brochure advises that the HIV mother can go back to breast feeding. That is a worry. Mothers and care groups please seek advice of doctors. AIDS Holistics will search more.

My baby son died of AIDS in 2002. I am sure that he was infected by his mother's breast milk. She died in 2003. 

But she secretly smoked which would have produced infections in her chest and the throat of her breast feeding baby son. That would have opened the door to HIV infection. Jonathan would have been 16 years old now. But he lies in his tiny coffin along the Papuan coast.

Another brochure advises that protection is needed for oral sex. Perhaps a man or woman has to use a female condom. It sounds messy. But at least the advice is now that HIV infection can come through the mouth. 

Gay men must not have oral sex through the anus as there is strong danger of swallowing gut parasite eggs that will destroy the epithelial cells of the small intestine and pass on to other anus licking gays.

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