Mothers with hepatitis B are not more likely to infect their newborn by breast-feeding so long as their child has been properly vaccinated for the disease, a new study by Fudan University suggests.
Fudan University's School of Public Health released its study in London's journal BMC Public Health, saying that the risk of infection, no matter the severity of the disease among mothers, was nearly the same between babies who were breast-fed and those given milk powder.
The school analyzed 36 studies conducted by medical experts in various countries, which comprised some 5,650 samples from babies whose mothers suffer from hepatitis B. The Fudan study showed that 4.2 percent of the 2,717 babies, who were breast-fed by mothers with the disease, contracted hepatitis B later in life, while 4.4 percent of the 2,933 babies, who were given milk powder by their mothers with the disease, still got hepatitis B when they were older.
"The results show that the risk of infection remains similar for babies who are breast-fed, and for those who are not. For the babies that were given milk powder, it remains unclear as to how they contracted the disease later in life. But they likely transmitted the disease through other channels, such as sexual intercourse." said Zheng Yingjie, lead researcher of the study, from Fudan University.
"Before the 90s, about 90 percent of babies, born from mothers with serious cases of hepatitis, were infected with the disease later in life. But this number dropped to just five percent after the vaccinations started being used a couple of decades ago on the Chinese mainland. Besides, most of the 5 percent who are infected, contract the disease in their mother's womb, before they can be given the vaccination," he added.


据《环球时报》19日报道，复旦大学的最新研究表明，只要婴儿正常接种乙肝疫苗，它就不会因为被身患乙肝的妈妈进行母乳喂养而感染乙肝病毒。

复旦大学公共卫生安全教育学院将该研究发表在伦敦《英国医学委员会•公共卫生》杂志上。研究称无论母亲所携带的乙肝病毒的传染性如何，母乳喂养和奶粉喂养使婴儿受到感染的几率几乎一样。


该学院对全世界36个医学专家的研究成果进行了分析，包括大约5650例由乙肝妈妈所生的小孩。复旦大学的研究表明，在2717名由乙肝妈妈进行母乳喂养的婴儿中，日后发生乙肝感染的几率为 4.2％；而在2933名由乙肝妈妈进行奶粉喂养的婴儿中，仍有4.4％的婴儿会在成长过程中感染乙肝。



复旦大学的郑英杰领导了此项研究，他说："这个结果表明母乳喂养和非母乳喂养感染婴儿的几率基本相同。至于那些食用奶粉的婴儿，至今仍无法确定他们是如何在日后感染到乙肝的，有可能是通过其他途径，比如性行为。"



"在90年代以前，患有严重肝病的母亲生育的婴儿中有大约90%的都会在日后感染乙肝，但是这个数字在几十年前因疫苗在大陆的普及而降到了5%。而且，这5%中的大部分婴儿是在还没有机会接种疫苗，在他们母亲的子宫内就已经感染了这种病毒。" 郑英杰补充说。

• properly [´prɔpəli] ad.适当地；严格地 (初中英语单词)
• journal [´dʒə:nəl] n.日记；日报；杂志 (初中英语单词)
• medical [´medikəl] a.医学的；医疗的 (初中英语单词)
• saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
• infection [in´fekʃən] n.感染，影响 (高中英语单词)
• infect [in´fekt] vt.传染；使受影响 (英语四级单词)
• severity [si´veriti] n.严厉；严重；苛刻 (英语四级单词)
• mainland [´meinlənd] n.大陆；本土 (英语四级单词)
• contracted [kən´træktid] a.收缩了的；缩略的 (英语六级单词)
• sexual [´sekʃuəl] a.性(欲)的 (英语六级单词)