Normal Thymic Size and Low Rate of Infections in Human Donor Milk Fed HIV-Exposed Uninfected Infants from Birth to 18 Months of Age

Table 4

Events of infectious illness in HIV-exposed uninfected (HIV-EU) infants compared to term HIV-unexposed infants, according to their different feeding modes at 4 months of age. The observation period between each examination was 4 months. 𝑁 is the mean number of cumulated infectious events between two evaluations per child in every feeding mode category.

	Mean number (min–max) of cumulated infectious events
Time of examination:	4 months	8 months	12 months
Feeding mode and cohort:
HIV-EU: human donor milk	1.8 (0–8)	1.7 (0–4)*	3.2 (0–7)*
HIV-unexposed infants: exclusively breastfed until 4 months of age	2.0 (0–4)	5.7 (1–13)**	9.0 (5–20)
HIV-unexposed infants: exclusively formula-fed until 4 months of age	2.5 (1–5)	12.5 (2–35)	9.5 (3–15)
HIV-unexposed infants: partially breastfed until 4 months of age	1.8 (1–3)	8.2 (1–26)	7.9 (4–13)

∗HIV-EU infants had significantly less infectious events than the other infants.
∗∗Infants exclusively breastfed until 4 months of age had significantly fewer infections at 8 months of age, than the exclusively formula-fed infants.