Breast milk does not appear to pass a COVID-19 infection from a mother to a baby, a study found.
In a University of California, San Diego, study of breast milk samples from 110 women who either tested positive or had coronavirus symptoms, only seven contained COVID-19 DNA. These DNA strains did not contain any sgRNA, which allows the virus to replicate, indicating that the COVID-19 DNA in these few samples was not infectious.
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“Breast milk is an invaluable source of nutrition to infants,” said Paul Krogstad, the study’s lead author. “In our study, we found no evidence that breast milk from mothers infected with COVID-19 contained infectious genetic material, and no clinical evidence was found to suggest the infants got infected, which suggests breastfeeding is not likely to be a hazard.”
Though small, the study is the largest of its kind. The samples were collected between March and September 2020, of which 65 came from women who had tested positive for COVID-19 and 45 came from women who were experiencing symptoms but either did not test or tested negative for COVID-19.
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The study was published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Pediatric Research. A previous study suggested that breast milk can contain antibodies from COVID-19, but it’s unclear how much protection they can offer babies.
