DOH to review Chinese findings that breast milk can prevent, cure COVID-19

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, DOH spokesperson. INQUIRER.net file photo / CONSUELO MARQUEZ

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) will review the Chinese scientists’ findings that mother’s milk could prevent the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) or treat patients infected with the disease.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Tuesday that it has long been the advocacy of the DOH to inform the public that breast milk provides protection to babies from certain diseases.

“If ever, there is this article and that they are saying that babies will be immune from COVID-19 because of breastmilk, we will not be surprised because as we have said, breastmilk has a lot of goodness in it and we advocate for it because it gives protection from babies from specific cases,” Vergeire told ABS-CBN News Channel.

“We will be reviewing this further,” she added.

According to a report from the South China Morning Post, a research team in Beijing tested the effect of human breast milk on cells exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The milk was collected in 2017, long before the onset of the pandemic. The cell types tested, meanwhile, varied from animal kidney cells to young human lung and gut cells.

The report said results showed that most living virus strains were killed by breast milk.

JPV