Someone who has active tuberculosis (tb) can breastfeed if they have received 2 weeks of appropriate anti-TB therapy. Infants can be fed expressed breastmilk during the 2-week period by someone else.1 The risk of TB transmission through breastmilk is negligible and, although the most commonly used anti-TB drugs are excreted into breastmilk in small amounts, there is no evidence that this induces drug resistance.2
As with most infectious diseases, by the time nursing parents present with symptoms, they have already exposed their infant to the pathogen. Cessation of breastfeeding does not prevent exposure, and may instead decrease the infant’s protection that comes through specific maternal anticorpos and other protective factors found in human milk. Portanto, common maternal bacterial, fungal, and viral infections in which the mother’s health is not compromised are not contraindications to breastfeeding.3
Please refer to a primary healthcare provider with more TB and leite materno-related questions, especially with regard to past donations or becoming a donor.
Read our introduction to infectious diseases here.
Por favor, veja Como o leite materno pode ser pasteurizado em casa? para obter mais informações sobre tratamento térmico e patógenos.
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- Crianças Saudáveis – Doenças graves e amamentação ↩︎
- QUEM. 2016. Orientações para programas nacionais de tuberculose sobre o tratamento da tuberculose em crianças ↩︎
- Canadian Paediatric Society. 2006. Updated 2016. Maternal Infectious Diseases, Antimicrobial Therapy or Immunizations: Very Few Contraindications to Breastfeeding ↩︎
