Human breast milk on sale via website: the hazards involved

British experts, on Thursday in London, warned that the growing online craze of buying and drinking human breast milk, among some fitness communities, fetishists and chronic disease sufferers, poses serious health implications. The human breast milk was being traded via websites in a lucrative market for adult buyers.

A Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, said there was little evidence to support claims, that the milk has any kind of super food that can boost health, fitness and ward off disease. Experts said the claims that it assisted with erectile dysfunction and cancer, have no clinical basis.

They warned that such raw and unpasteurised human breast milk can expose consumers to many serious infectious diseases, including hepatitis, HIV and syphilis. Sarah Steele, a Specialist at the Global Health and Policy Unit, Queen Mary University of London, said it was also potentially very hazardous, if used to replace a healthy balanced diet.

She said nutritionally, there was less protein in human breast milk than other milks like cow’s milk. “Potential buyers should be made aware that no scientific study evidences that direct adult consumption of human milk for medicinal properties offers anything more than a placebo effect.

“Failure of women to sanitise properly when producing milk, failure to sterilize equipment properly, and improper or prolonged storage and transportation of milk can also expose consumers to bacterial food-borne illnesses. “While many online mums claim they have been tested for viruses during pregnancy, many do not realise that such screening needs to be undertaken regularly,” she said.

Steele warned that sexual and other activities may expose the women to viruses that they may unwittingly pass on to consumers.

 

Human breast milk on sale via website: the hazards involved