Does pre-chewed food pose HIV risk?

• Alarm sounded after first case of mother infecting an infant by mouth is recorded

The first case in which HIV has been transmitted to a baby through pre-chewed food by the mother has been confirmed.

Pre-chewing food for infants is an old method of feeding babies, making it easier for them to swallow. With good hygiene, this has proved a healthy practice over the years but has been greatly overtaken by new technologies and modern lifestyles.

However, the new development reported in next month’s issue of the journal Paediatrics will mean cautioning HIV positive women not to pre-chew food for babies.

But for countries like Kenya where more than 70 per cent of the population does not know their HIV status, all mothers or care givers may have to be cautioned about pre-chewing food for infants.

The case that led to this report was a nine-month-old baby girl who was referred to St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the US because she was HIV positive after earlier tests had been negative.

According to the study’s lead researcher, Dr Aditya Gaur, the baby’s HIV-positive mother had not breast-fed her, with further investigations ruling out blood transfusion, injury or sexual abuse as possible modes of transmission.

Genetic testing carried out by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention indicated the small girl had been infected with the same HIV strain as the mother.

Bleeding gums

It is suspected the blood in the saliva of the mother came from her bleeding gums or some other part of the mouth.

The researchers are quick to assure that this does not mean HIV can be transmitted through kissing because saliva does not contain transmissible quantities of the virus.

However, this many not hold true for people with bleeding gums or open mouth sores.

Previous studies have reported pre-chewed food as being responsible for the transmission of streptococcus — bacteria responsible for several illnesses including sore throat, pneumonia and rheumatic fever among others — and hepatitis.

The researchers described the latest and some two earlier suspect cases in which pre-chewed food was likely the source of HIV transmission to infants.