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.