Late Onset Group B Streptococcal Infection from Maternal Expressed Breast Milk in a Very Low Birth Weight Infant

Bacteriological Screening of Donor Human Milk Before and After Holder Pasteurization

“…29 There are instances in which a sick preterm infant was thought to have acquired a particular organism from his own mother's milk. 30,33 In most circumstances, however, the benefits of feeding a preterm infant his or her mother's own milk far outweigh the potential risks of his exposure to bacteria in her milk. In addition, the human milk-fed preterm infant would receive other immune factors and antibodies specific to potential pathogenic bacteria made by the mother as a result of exposure to her infant's NICU environment.…”

“…There are reports of breastmilk providing a potential source of neonatal GBS infection. 30,31 In addition to GBS, other neonatal pathogens, such as S. aureus, have been found to contaminate donor human milk. [32][33][34] One report from five Brazilian milk banks reported methicillin-resistant S. aureus contamination in 11% of fresh-frozen samples, most with counts <10 4 CFU=mL.…”

Recurrent Late-Onset Group B Streptococcus Sepsis in a Preterm Infant Acquired by Expressed Breastmilk Transmission: A Case Report

“…10 Maternal milk as a source of neonatal Group B Streptococcus disease has been reported, albeit rarely, and review of the literature showed that this was not the first encounter of an infant Group B Streptococcus infection related to breastfeeding. [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] The theory of the organism colonizing the oropharyngeal mucosa of the infant and then infecting/multiplying in maternal breastmilk ducts to re-infect the infant can hold true for more commonly reported breastfeeding infants and not in infants being tube-fed expressed breastmilk only.…”

Got Milk? Sharing Human Milk via the Internet

“…Even the addition of cow's milk proteins may be harmful for some infants. [13][14][15][16] Infectious agents found in milk, such as human immunodeficiency virus, 17,18 group B streptococcus, [19][20][21][22] Klebsiella pneumoniae, 23 cytomegalovirus, [24][25][26][27] and herpes, [24][25][26][27][28][29][30] can potentially sicken the recipient. Harmful environmental chemicals potentially may be found in milk stored for long periods of time in plastic containers, [31][32][33][34] and repeated cycles of refrigeration-freezing-thawing may alter the integrity of milk's bioactive factors.…”