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Breast feeding and the risks of viral transmission
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Specialised epidermal secretions developed as nutritious and
bacteriostatic factors some 120 million years ago; milk production has
proved a crucial factor to mammalian survival in a wide range of
habitats. Milk composition differs considerably between phyla, within
species, and with time in an individual lactating mother. The neonatal
period claims the greatest infectious toll in mammals so that from an
evolutionary standpoint there must be a balance in favour of producing
and consuming milk without increasing susceptibility to infection.
Competitive interaction with viruses, bacteria, and protozoans has
resulted in the development of unique characteristics within breast
epithelial cells. Unlike equivalent cells in sweat or salivary glands,
they secrete nutritive molecules, antibiotic substances, growth
factors, inflammatory cytokines, and chemokines while regulating a
physiological recruitment of lymphoid and myeloid cells from the
circulation into the milk. Milk therefore has functions other than
nutrition; milk is a complex mixture of cells, membranes, and
molecules.
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Child health
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