Breast milk is not a significant source for early Epstein-Barr virus or human herpesvirus 6 infection in infants: a seroepidemiologic study in 2 endemic areas of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I in Japan.
In order to evaluate the possibility of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) transmission via breast milk, a total of 331 serum specimens collected from bottle-fed and breast-fed children and their mothers, in 2 endemic areas of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) in Japan, were assayed for antibodies to EBV and HHV-6. The seroprevalences of EBV and HHV-6 were over 95% both in the mothers of bottle-fed children and in those of breast-fed children. The seroprevalence of EBV at 12-23 months of age was 54.5% (36/66) and 55.8% (24/43) in breast-fed children and bottle-fed children, respectively. The seroprevalence of HHV-6 at 12-23 months of age was 90.9% (60/66) and 93.0% (40/43) in breast-fed children and bottle-fed children, respectively. No difference was observed between the seroprevalences of EBV and HHV-6 in breast-fed and bottle-fed children at 12-23 months of age. Our seroepidemiologic data indicate that breast milk is not a significant source of early EBV or HHV-6 infection in infancy.
Kusuhara
K
K
Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Kyushu University, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, Japan.
Takabayashi
A
A
Ueda
K
K
Hidaka
Y
Y
Minamishima
I
I
Take
H
H
Fujioka
K
K
Imai
S
S
Osato
T
T
D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000453:epidemiology; D006566:Herpesviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission*; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human; D015654:Herpesvirus 6, Human; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000821:virology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D015995:Prevalence; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D014412:Tumor Virus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission*
D000914:Antibodies, Viral