Breastfeeding: breast milk banks and human immunodeficiency virus.

HIV in infants and children in Zimbabwe is virtually limited to vertical transmission. Less than 5 cases of transfusion acquired HIV infections have been documented to date. Zimbabwe was the third country in the world after the United States, to screen transfusion blood and blood products. The controversy of HIV transmission through breast milk is still far from resolved. In developing countries, breast-milk substitutes for formulae are not only prohibitively expensive but dangerous because of unhygienic and economic constraints. The paper argues the case for continued breast-feeding of infants by their HIV seropositive mothers.