Breast milk protects against Covid-19?

The breast milk of lactating mothers vaccinated against Covid19 contains a significant supply of antibodies that may help protect nursing infants from the illness, according to new research from the University of Florida. The study was published in the journal Breastfeeding Medicine and was funded by the Children's Miracle Network.

"Our findings show that vaccination results in a significant increase in antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes Covid19 — in breast milk, suggesting that vaccinated mothers can pass on this immunity to their babies, something we are working to confirm in our ongoing research," said Joseph Larkin III, PhD, senior author of the study and an associate professor in the UF/IFAS department of microbiology and cell science. When babies are born, their immune systems are underdeveloped, making it hard for them to fight infections on their own. They are also often too young to respond adequately to certain types of vaccines, said Josef Neu, M.D., one of the study's coauthors and a professor in the UF College of Medicine's department of paediatrics, division of neonatology.

The study was conducted between December 2020 and March 2021, when the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines first became available to health care workers. Researchers recruited 21 lactating health care workers who had never contracted Covid-19. The research team sampled the mothers' breast milk and blood three times: before vaccination, after the first dose and after the second dose.

"We saw a robust antibody response in blood and breast milk after the second dose — about a hundred-fold increase compared with levels before vaccination," said Lauren Stafford, a doctoral student in Larkin's lab.

—ANI

Lactating mothers, who are vaccinated against the virus, might be providing their newborns with antibodies