Breastfeeding and maternal HIV-1 disease progression and mortality

Objective: To examine the association between breastfeeding and disease progression among HIV-infected women in Dares Salaam, Tanzania. Design and methods: Cohort study design with Cox proportional hazards models. Results: The relative risk of death comparing women who recently had been breastfeeding to those who were not breastfeeding was 0.47 (95% confidence interval, 0.18-1.20). Neither breastfeeding status nor the duration of exclusive or partial breastfeeding was associated with HIV-1 disease progression, represented by death or development of a low CD4 cell count, anemia or excessive weight loss, in multivariate analyses. These associations remained insignificant when women with relatively low and high CD4 cell counts were analyzed separately. Conclusion: There is insufficient evidence to support the hypothesis that breastfeeding is detrimental to the health of HIV-infected women. (C) 2004 Lippincott Williams Wilkins.