ISSN: 0973-7510
E-ISSN: 2581-690X
Hepatitis B viral infection is a significant health problem that can be transferred from mothers to babies during birth or breastfeeding. Breastmilk that is donated to breastmilk banks or directly mother to mother needs to be tested to make sure it is not infected with hepatitis B to ensure it is safe to give to babies. This work showed that it was possible to detect the presence of hepatitis B in breastmilk after centrifugation rather than having to use a blood sample. In addition, a five minute exposure to a temperature of 72oC was shown to be able to kill the virus in the breastmilk. The proposed method has the potential to shorten the time needed to process milk donations and make the screening less complicated.
Breastmilk bank, Mother to mother donation, HBV, Screening.
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