Mothers’ milk ‘wards off HIV’

Breast milk may protect children against the HIV virus, research suggests.

Tests on mice show that even though some children acquire HIV from breastfeeding, mother’s milk has a strong anti-viral effect.

Most at-risk breast-fed infants do not end up with HIV despite long and repeated exposure.

Scientists carried out a study of genetically modified “humanised” mice that can acquire HIV in the same way as humans.

When the mice were given the virus in human breast milk, they were not infected.

The findings are published in the online journal Public Library of Science Pathogens.