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Report: Pre-Chewing Can Spread AIDS Virus

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The Associated Press

Published: February 7, 2008

ATLANTA - For the first time, health officials report that the AIDS virus can be spread by a mother pre-chewing her infant's food, a practice mainly seen in poor, developing countries.

Three such cases were reported in the United States from 1993 to 2004, government scientists said Wednesday in a presentation in Boston at a scientific conference.

It's blood, not saliva, that carried the virus, according to investigators at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CDC officials say more study is needed. But they are asking parents and caregivers with HIV not to pre-chew infants' food.
Health officials think chewed-food transmission is rare in the United States.

"But even one case is too many," said the CDC's Ken Dominguez, who helped investigate the U.S. cases.

The first involved a 15-month-old black boy in Miami, diagnosed in 1993. His great-aunt was infected with HIV and pre-chewed food for the boy when he was between 9 and 14 months old.

Then a 3-year-old Caribbean-American boy was diagnosed in 1995, also in Miami.

A 9-month-old black girl was diagnosed with HIV in Memphis, Tenn. The mother began pre-chewing the girl's food when she was about 4 months old.

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