HIV and infant feeding: the concept of AFASS

Abstract

By the year 2000, it was estimated that out of about 34 million cases of HIV/AIDS, about 1.3 million were children.' More than 90 percent of the childhood HIV/AIDS cases live in developing countries and the infections are acquired mainly through direct mother-to-child transmission (MTCT). It is well established that HIV is transmissible through breastfeeding 23 Both cell-free and cell-associated HIV have been identified in the breast milk of 63 to 80 percent of women infected with HIV/AIDS. Rates of MTCT via breastfeeding range from 10 to 33 percent.26 In developing countries, about a third of all childhood HIV/AIDS are believed to be acquired through breastfeeding.