Abstracts

Role of human-milk virus lactadherin in protection against symptomatic rotavirus infection

Several studies to date have documented that breastfed babies have better protection against infection by rotavirus, a major cause of diarrhoeal disease in infants and young children in both developed and developing countries. Several studies have also indicated that when rotavirus infections occur in infants, the symptoms are less severe in a breastfed infant. The antiviral activity of human milk had been shown to inhibit the replication of rotaviruses through a binding mechanism. This study of poor children in a suburb of Mexico City tested the hypothesis that the lactadherin in human milk protects infants from the symptoms of rotavirus by examining the relationship between lactadherin concentrations in breastmilk and symptomatic rotavirus infection. Two hundred infants were followed from birth for two years. Results showed that 31 infants developed rotavirus infection - 15 were symptomatic and 16 had no symptoms. Those in the asymptomatic group had lactadherin concentrations of median 48.4 and those that were symptomatic had a median level of 29.2 ug/ml. The researchers concluded that protection against rotavirus by human milk is associated with the glycoprotein lactadherin.

Increasing Breastfeeding Rates to Reduce Infancy Illness at the Community Level

This team of researchers took a novel approach to evaluating the impact of a community breastfeeding promotion program. By studying the medical records of all infants born in a Navaho community the year before the intervention (997 cases) and the year during the intervention (858 cases) they were able determine, through measuring the changes in infant illness, the impact of the promotional program. Results of the breastfeeding promotion program intervention:

• Increase in women breastfeeding exclusively for any period of time: from 16.4% to 54.6%
• Decline in the number of children suffering from pneumonia and gastroenteritis: 32.2% to 14.6%

Interestingly, rates of croup and bronchiolitis increased only for those formula fed after the intervention, suggesting that a viral epidemic was limited to those never exclusively breastfed.