A Case Series of 104 Women Infected with HIV-1 via Blood Transfusion Postnatally: High Rate of HIV-1 Transmission to Infants through Breast-Feeding

• Published in: The Journal of infectious diseases Vol. 200; no. 5; pp. 682 - 686
• Main Authors: Liang, Ke, Gui, Xien, Zhang, Yuan-Zhen, Zhuang, Ke, Meyers, Kathrine, Ho, David D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford The University of Chicago Press 01.09.2009; University of Chicago Press; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: Adult; AIDS; Biological and medical sciences; Blood; Blood transfusion; Breast Feeding - adverse effects; Children; Cross Infection - epidemiology; Cross Infection - transmission; Disease transmission; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; HIV 1; HIV Infections - epidemiology; HIV Infections - transmission; HIV-1 - isolation & purification; HIV/AIDS; Human viral diseases; Humans; Infant; Infants; Infections; Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical; Infectious diseases; Medical sciences; Microbiology; Miscellaneous; Mothers; Survival Analysis; Transfusion Reaction; Viral diseases; Viral diseases of the lymphoid tissue and the blood. Aids; Virology; Women; Young Adult; Human; Immunopathology; Transfusion; Microbiology; HIV-1 virus; Transmission; Retroviridae; Infant; AIDS; Breast feeding; Immune deficiency; Lentivirus; Blood; Virus; Infection; Viral disease; Female; Human immunodeficiency virus
• ISSN: 0022-1899; 1537-6613
• DOI: 10.1086/605123

We investigated transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) via breast-feeding by 104 Chinese mothers who acquired the infection through blood transfusion postnatally. Of 106 children, 38 (35.8%) were infected. All children survived to age 5 years, and their survival curve was similar to that of their mothers. These findings suggest a high rate of HIV-1 transmission via breast-feeding when mothers were infected postnatally via blood transfusion, perhaps because of the higher viremia expected during the acute phase of infection. The course of disease among infected children was significantly less rapid than that among newborns infected perinatally, suggesting that a brief window of HIV-1–free life often enables the immune system of an infant to stave off rapid disease progression