Potential impact of infant feeding recommendations on mortality and HIV-infection in children born to HIV-infected mothers in Africa: a simulation

Table 2 Definition, values and sources of parameters used in modeling the potential impact of different breast-feeding recommendations in children born to HIV-infected women in sub-Saharan Africa

Parameter	Definition	Base model	Source of estimates
N	Population size of children born to HIV-infected women	100000	-
P	Proportion of infants born HIV positive	0.08	[25]
λ_B	Rate of HIV infection from exclusive breast-feeding (cases/person-week)	0.0019	[21, 23]
λ_M	Rate of HIV infection from mixed-feeding (cases/person-week)	0.0027	[26]*
Γ	Rate of progression from HIV to AIDS= (average duration of non-AIDS HIV infection)^-1	0.016	[27]
μ_M	Mortality rate in mixed-fed infants (per person-week)	0.00087	**
μ_F	Mortality rate in replacement-fed infants (per person-week)	0.00096	[28]
μ_B	Mortality rate in exclusively breast-fed infants (per person-week)	0.00078	[28]
μ_A	Mortality rate due to HIV/AIDS (per person-week)	0.005	[28]
B	Proportion of uninfected infants at birth that are exclusively breast-fed	†	-
F	Proportion of uninfected infants at birth that are exclusively replacement-fed	†	-
M	Proportion of uninfected infants at birth that receive mixed feeding	†	-

* In the absence of specific estimates in Uganda/Kenya, used this study to estimate that transmission rate in mixed fed is 40% higher than that in exclusively breast-fed.
** In the absence of data: mortality in mixed-fed infants was assumed to be the mean of the mortality in exclusively breast-fed and replacement-fed infants.
† Values varied by scenario (see Table 1)

ISSN: 1471-2334