Detectable Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Human Breast Milk of a Mildly Symptomatic Patient With Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Patrick C K Tam; Kathleen M Ly; Max L Kernich; Nicola Spurrier; Diana Lawrence; David L Gordon; Emily C Tucker

doi:10.1093/cid/ciaa673

Detectable Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Human Breast Milk of a Mildly Symptomatic Patient With Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Clin Infect Dis. 2021 Jan 23;72(1):128-130. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa673.

Authors

Patrick C K Tam¹, Kathleen M Ly¹, Max L Kernich^{1

2}, Nicola Spurrier^{3

4}, Diana Lawrence⁵, David L Gordon^{1

2

4}, Emily C Tucker¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
² SA Pathology, Department for Health and Wellbeing, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
³ Health Regulation and Protection, Department for Health and Wellbeing, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
⁴ Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
⁵ Department of Pediatrics, Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus and causative pathogen to the pandemic illness COVID-19. Although RNA has been detected in various clinical samples, no reports to date have documented SARS-CoV-2 in human milk. This case report describes an actively breastfeeding patient with COVID-19 infection with detectable viral RNA in human milk.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; breast-feeding; human milk.

Publication types

Case Reports

MeSH terms

Breast Feeding
COVID-19*
Female
Humans
Milk, Human
Pandemics
SARS-CoV-2*