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Coronavirus antibodies found in breast milk, says expert

This is why mothers should not take their babies with them to shopping centers, cafes and other public places to avoid risk of coming into contact with infected persons

MOSCOW, July 15. /TASS/. Coronavirus antibodies can be transmitted from a woman recovered from COVID-19 to her child through breast milk, however, they are not always enough to protect the child against the disease, Tatyana Ruzhentsova, head of the clinical research department at the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology under the consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, told TASS on Wednesday.

"We know very well that one of the benefits of breastfeeding is the transfusion of the mother’s immunoglobulins, which can protect against infection, to the child," she said. "If the mother has immunity, she will transmit it to her child. However, this protection isn’t always enough, especially if there are people coughing and sneezing in the room."

This is why mothers should not take their babies with them to shopping centers, cafes and other public places to avoid risk of coming into contact with infected persons.

Earlier, two research articles ("Antibodies in the breast milk of a maternal woman with COVID-19" by researchers from the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology; and "Evidence of a significant secretory-IgA-dominant SARS-CoV-2 immune response in human milk following recovery from COVID-19" by researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the University of California Merced) suggested that COVID-19 antibodies had been found in human breastmilk. The researchers noted the benefit of breastfeeding during the pandemic. US researchers also outlined the possibility of using human breast milk in therapy.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 13,477,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 581,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 7,870,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

To date, 746,369 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 523,249 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 11,770 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.