Breast is still best

African mothers who are HIV-positive should breastfeed their babies, despite
the small chance of transmitting the virus in their milk, says a US researcher.
In a report for UNICEF, Michael Latham of Cornell University in Ithaca says that
bottle feeding is a much greater risk. Infants in poor households who are fed
formula are five times as likely to die of infection and disease as those who
are breastfed. “There is an exaggerated belief in the risk of viral transmission
through breastfeeding,” he says.