Re: [pronut-hiv] HIV+ mothers should discontinue all breastfeeding before providing cow milk to infants (3)

["George M. Carter" <fiar@verizon.net>]

--Rachel Stern wrote:

>  "...However, it can at least be postulated that damage to the intestine 
> may serve as a portal for HIV infection..."
>
>Doesn't sound totally plausible. Is there evidence of an intestinal entry?

Not as a direct portal like the vagina or anus, but as a primary site of 
infection. Danny Douek and his colleagues have examined gut mucosal tissue 
and  noted a massive depletion of CD4+ memory cells from the tissues, 
underscoring HIV as a disease first of the gut. (Infection via parenteral 
means, of course, may have other implications). Peyer's patches, the 
lymphoid tissue of the gut, have long been recognized as preferential sites of HIV's dissemination to other sanctuary sites (e.g., eventually to the CNS).

There are also some data suggesting that SIV infection of sooty mangabeys 
may ALSO result in such loss--yet these animals do NOT develop AIDS. 
Perhaps they have compensatory immune mechanisms that are more effective in addressing the opportunistic infections?

In any case, the therapeutic implications of Douek's work have been known 
for years, though nutritionists as a whole have been far too timid about 
making more aggressive recommendations. The damage to the gut is one direct source for the depletion of peripheral miconutirent status. So a multi. 

Duh. Other agents such as whey proteins, glutamine, calcium, and probiotics (e.g., acidophilus sp., bifidus, etc.) may all help.

Or--for the many poor--just adequate access to food and clean water is a 
damn good start that we (as a species) can't seem to manage largely because of greed, arrogance, stupidity and ultimately, a vast cold and malevolent indifference that sees profits as always more important than human life.

George M. Carter