The Causes Of AIDS Through Mother Transmission
There is a concern that breast feeding is another cause for the growing numbers of AIDS in Africa. It’s not the issue of unprotected sex or the use of dirty needles; it is also due to the transmission from the mother to her innocent children.
The epidemic of AIDS has dramatically affected women, especially during
the time they are able to reproduce. In 1998, 90% of babies born in the
world, or 531,000 babies, were born HIV positive. This usually occurs
during the delivery of the baby, but it also has developed through the
use of breast feeding.
Sometimes, mothers do not believe that they are infected with AIDS or
they do not know that breast feeding can give their babies the deadly
disease. Although Africa is now encouraging mothers to use formulas for
baby milk, most mothers do not have the access to such resource, nor do
they have money to provide their babies with adequate health care. This
may continue to leading to the rapid spread of AIDS. If mothers in Africa
are continuing the method of breast feeding, it would mean that each year,
30,000 infants in South Africa will get AIDS.
The African society is urging the mothers not to breast feed. But in order
for mothers to make that decision and cope with it, the mothers must be
provided with a reliable method to feed their babies plus the formula
needs to be free of cost. However, without the use of breast feeding,
the children of Africa will have a higher risk of being malnutritious.
There is no accurate data recorded from Africa that says this, because
most children are breast-fed, but from data elsewhere, it has shown that
infectious disease, diarrhea, and respiratory infections are more likely
to occur to those children who did not have breast feeding from their
mothers (Latham and Preble,v320i7250p1656).