One frequently hears about the HIV/AIDS crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, 700,000 children are born each year to HIV-positive mothers. However, the cause responsible for 30-35% of mother-to-child transmission cases—breast feeding—is often overlooked. Research shows that approximately 50,000 babies acquire HIV annually while trying to gain the nutrition required to live from their mothers.

 

The WHO policy states that, " when replacement feeding is acceptable, feasible, affordable, sustainable and safe, avoidance of all breastfeeding by HIV-infected mothers is recommended." However, using formula in low-resource settings has been shown to decrease infant survival due to death from diarrhea and malnutrition. Because of this, most mothers are left with only one option—breastfeed to provide their child nutrition and hope HIV is not transmitted in the process. Our work is focused on the elimination of that unconscionable risk.

Our approach is to modify an existing nipple shield by adding a non-woven disk (cotton-wool) containing a common microbicide compound that inactivates the HIV without harming the baby. This allows the mother to directly feed the baby rather than having to collect and heat the milk, which can result in social stigma.

 

This method still requires more research and testing to establish that enough HIV is inactivated in the time during which the milk passes through the fabric. With the support from a Gates Foundation Grand Challenges grant, the team has been working with organizations to test the efficacy of the HIV nipple shield as well as looking into other potential applications of the device including nutritional supplement and pediatric medicine delivery.