HPV found in breastmilk

by Jennifer Jordan (Subscribe to Jennifer Jordan's posts)
Jul 9th 2008 11:00AM

Well, if HPV, which is linked to cervical cancer, wasn't scary enough, now there is new evidence it can be detected in breastmilk and possibly passed on to a nursing infant. HPV-16, full name Human papillomavirus type 16, can be traced back to a woman in the early stages after she's given birth.

the testing involved the scrapings from 223 mothers' cervixes as well as their mouths prior to delivery along with scrapings from 87 of the fathers. Scrapings were also tested at 2, 6 and 12 months postpartum and breastmilk was tested on the third day after delivery.

The team who conducted the research also tested fathers and found a link between HPV 16 in milk where it was detected in the oral scrapings from the father. The transmission causing the link remains unclear--it could be from mouth to breast to nipple or from the new mom's hands.

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