Re: [pronut-hiv] HIV+ mothers should discontinue all breastfeedingbefore providing cow milk to infants (4)

["Rachel Stern" <sternworks@verizon.net>]

Hi, George. I meant, the small intestine as a site of intitial HIV entry. I agree, it's well known that established HIV has a devasting effect on 
intestine.
Rachel Stern

----- "George M. Carter 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
>
>
>