HIV

From VOA Learning English,

this is the Health Report.

Hundreds of thousands of children

become infected with the AIDS virus every year.

These boys and girls are born to mothers who have HIV,

the human immunodeficiency virus.

Infection takes place during pregnancy

or from breastfeeding.

Recently, Scientists identified a protein

in breast milk that suppresses the virus,

the protein may even protect babies

from become infected.

Now, Experts say the discovery could lead to new ways

to protect babies whose mothers are infected with HIV.

To prevent Infection, doctors give Anti-retroviral drugs

to both mothers and their babies,

that has greatly reduced the number of infections.

But experts say that even without anti-AIDS drugs,

only a small percentage of babies

become infected through breast milk.

Sallie Permar is a professor of pediatrics and immunology

at Duke University in North Carolina.

She says, breastfeed babies appear to resist infection.

"It is actually remarkable that despite

the infant being exposed to the virus multiple times daily

for up to two years of their life,

actually only 10 percent of those babies

will become infected," said Permar.

The low rate of the infection

was of great interest to researchers,

including Sallie Permar.

She led an effort to identify a substance in breast milk

that may protect babies from infection.

Her team directed its attention to a protein

called Tenacin-C, also called TNC.

It is known to be involved in the process of healing wounds.

But what purpose it serves in breast milk is not known.

The researchers exposed the TNC protein

from breast milk of uninfected women to HIV,

the protein linked up to the virus and made it harmless.

Antiretroviral drugs remain effective

in limiting the passing of HIV from mother to baby.

But professor Permar and her team suggest

the TNC could be used in places

where costly drug treatments are often not available.

"The issues are access to the drugs as well as monitoring.

There are issues of toxicity and anti-retroviral drug resistance.

And so we think alternative strategies

may be needed to completely eliminate infant transmission," she Permar.

She suggests that TNC could be given to babies

before breastfeeding to provide additional protection against HIV.

She adds that the protein is safe,

because it is already in natural part of human milk.

This may avoid the problem of HIV

become resisted to Antiretroviral drugs.

The team reported its findings in the journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

And that is the Health Report from VOA Learning English.

I'm June Simms.