Dear all,
Please I am sharing with you a technical note on nutrition and Mpox case management. The document aims to provide guidance on the Nutrition-Mpox response for UNICEF and partner staff. This is following earlier concerns raised by various health practitioners, especially regarding breastfeeding continuation in the event when a mother gets infected with Mpox.
Please find the contents at:
https://www.nutritioncluster.net/resources/unicef-internal-technical-not...
I am also sharing a 2022 letter (Is monkeypox virus transmissible by breastfeeding?) which gives more guidance on how to approach the search for the answers to this question.
Please find excerpts of the article below
"Is monkeypox virus transmissible by breastfeeding? Van de Perre P, Molès JP, Rollins N. Pediatr Allergy Immunol. 2022 Oct;33(10):e13861. doi:10.1111/pai.13861. PMID: 36282140.
To the Editor,
Since early May 2022, more than 92 non-endemic-prone countries have been facing an outbreak of monkeypox virus (MPXV) infections. As of 7 September 2022, approximately 53,000 confirmed or suspected cases have been reported to World Health Organization (WHO) and/or European Centers for Disease Control.1 The virus circulating in non-endemic-prone countries is related to the West African Clade. However, the current outbreak shows some differences in clinical features compared to infections in Central and West Africa endemic-proneareas. Most cases are non-severe with so far, only 18 deaths reported; in contrast, in endemic-prone areas fatality rates are
commonly between 3% and 10%. The vast majority of persons affected in this outbreakare male (and mainly men having sex with men), while in endemicprone, MPXV countries women are almost equally affected.
There is however concern that many more women of childbearing age will be affected if the extremely high household transmission rates as seen in endemic areas are manifest in the present outbreak. As for many other viral infections, children, pregnant/postpartum women, and immunodeficient individuals from endemic areasare at higher risk of developing severe, sometimes fatal forms of MPXV infection. As observed in smallpox, it is very likely that infants infected with MPXV present frequently with severe or lethalforms of the disease.
One of the haunting questions related to MPXV epidemiology is whether the virus can be transmitted through breastfeeding. We recently proposed a Koch's postulate-derived conceptual framework to establish whether viruses are transmitted through breastfeeding based on five criteria.21. There is evidence for viral infection in infants receiving breastmilk from infected
mothers.2. Virus, viral antigen, or viral genome is present in the breast milk of infected mothers.3. The virus in breast milk is capable of replication.4. Other relevant transmission routes (e.g., by transplacental, airbornedroplets, arthropod bites, and blood-borne routes) potentially associatedwith breastfeeding have been reasonably ruled out.5. Transmission by breast milk can be reproduced by oral inoculationin an animal model.We searched the literature for evidence related to each of these criteria to examine the likelihood of MPXV transmission through breastfeeding."
Please read the full article here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pai.13861
Kind regards
Edem
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**Edem **Kpewou*
(CHIFA Co-Moderator)
CHIFA profile
Edem Kpewou is a University Lecturer at the Department of Nutritional Sciences of the University for Development Studies in Ghana where he teaches and researhes into maternal and child nutrition and health. He is also a Co-Moderator on CHIFA. He is passionate about child health and nutrition and advocates for the wellbeing of children. Email:edemdamienATgmail.com