WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The risk of COVID-19 infection from breastfeeding is negligible and has never been documented, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday, in a call for greater support for the practice.
The appeal, during World Breastfeeding Week, comes as WHO warned that not using mother's milk is linked to 820,000 child deaths a year, which is estimted to cost $300 billion to the global economy.
'WHO has been very clear in its recommendations to say absolutely breastfeeding should continue,' said Dr. Laurence Grummer-Strawn, head of the World Health Organization's Food and Nutrition Action in Health Systems unit. 'We have never documented, anywhere around the world, any (Covid-19) transmission through breastmilk.'
Exclusive breastfeeding for six months has many benefits for the infant and mother which far outweigh any risk from the new coronavirus pandemic, according to WHO.
These advantages include the fact that breastmilk - including milk which is expressed - provides lifesaving antibodies that protect babies against many childhood illnesses.
This is only one of the reasons why new mothers should initiate 'skin-to-skin contact' and 'room-in' with their babies quickly, as 'the risks of transmission of the Covid-19 virus from a COVID-positive mother to her baby seem to be extremely low', added Dr. Grummer-Strawn.
Having tested the breastmilk of many mothers around the world in a variety of studies, the WHO official explained that although a few samples had contained the virus, 'when they followed up to see whether the virus was actually viable and could be infective, they could not find any actual infective virus'.
Underscoring the WHO's longstanding support for using mother's milk over substitutes, Dr. Grummer-Strawn also warned that the pandemic had weakened essential breastfeeding support usually provided to families with newborns.
The UN health agency has insisted that 'it is not safer to give infant formula milk'.
The top WHO official pointed out that the most recognised benefits of breastfeeding include protection against diarrhoea, which is one of the top causes of mortality in low-income countries; protection against respiratory infections; against obesity - childhood obesity later on - as children get older; and protection against leukaemia.
Copyright(c) 2026 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2026 AFX News
