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Published on: February 7, 2025
Retrospective review of serological testing of potential human milk donors
Ronald S Cohen1, Sean C Xiong, Pauline Sakamoto
1Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California, USA. rscohen@Stanford.edu
Objective:
To estimate the prevalence of positive serology among potential donors to a human milk bank.
Design:
Retrospective review of our experience with donor serological testing at our milk bank over a 6-year interval.
Setting:
Not-for-profit, regional human milk bank.
Patients:
Volunteer, unpaid potential donors of human milk.
Interventions:
Serological testing for syphilis, HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, human T cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) and human T cell lymphotropic virus type 2 (HTLV-2).
Main Outcome Measures:
Results of serological screening tests performed on potential donors.
Results:
Of 1091 potential donors, 3.3% were positive on screening serology, including 6 syphilis, 17 hepatitis B, 3 hepatitis C, 6 HTLV and 4 HIV.
Conclusions:
There is a significant incidence of positive serology among women interested in donating human milk. This implies that there may be significant risk associated with peer-to-peer distribution of human milk from unscreened donors.
