Vitamin A increases the concentration of HIV virus in breast milk

Vitamin A and nutritional supplements containing beta-carotene are not safe for HIV-positive women who breastfeed their babies because they can increase the excretion of HIV in breast milk, thereby increasing risk of transmission from mother to child.

Photos are for illustrative purposes only. Source: Internet

Dr. Eduardo Villamor, an expert in epidemiology at the University of Michigan in the US and author of the study, said that HIV transmission through breastfeeding is entirely possible because of milk. Mother can bring virus particles to the baby's body.

Dr. Villamor and colleagues conducted research on 1,078 women infected with HIV. These people are divided into four groups. Every day, groups will be given 5,000 units of vitamin A and 30mg of supplements containing beta-carotene during pregnancy and lactation.

The results showed that mothers who were infected with HIV daily taking vitamin A and beta-carotene supplements during pregnancy or lactation had higher rates of viral transmission to their children than the comparison group.

The results of the study were published in the August issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Dr. Villamor said that mother-to-child transmission of HIV is a serious problem in developing countries where HIV is increasingly popular. In 2008 alone, there were about 430,000 new infections and 90% of this total was transmitted from mother to child. Most of these cases are in Sub-Saharan Africa.