Coronavirus Update: Researcher Asks For Breast Milk To Study COVID-19 Treatment

A researcher at New York City’s Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai thinks breast milk could hold clues to coronavirus protection.

Rebecca Powell, Ph.D., a medical researcher, and human milk immunologist, has made a strange request on social media asking mothers of newborns to donate breast milk to help her analyzing its healing powers.

“Are you a healthy, lactating person in NYC? Do you own a breast pump? Are you comfortable expressing breast milk that your baby will not need? If you answered YES to these questions, you may be eligible to participate in breast milk research study!” mentioned the ad posted by New England Mother’s First- NEMF on Facebook.

Powell wants hundreds of samples especially from women residing in New York City, the epicenter of coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., for her study.

“There’s a lot of lactating people out there that are getting infected and would be ready and willing to donate milk — I can tell you because I have hundreds of emails of people who want to participate, and many of them have said they had highly suspected infection or a positive test,” VICE News quoted Powell.

“They’re out there, and I don’t think it should be overlooked,” she added.

How can breast milk help? The antibodies in human breast milk, in tandem with immune cells, have the ability to pass on powerful pathogen-killing functions to newborn babies who might otherwise become vulnerable to diseases including chickenpox or measles in their first few months after being born. That is one of the main reasons why health experts insist on women breastfeeding their children.

Moreover, several studies that are examining the blood antibodies of recovered COVID-19 patients via convalescent plasma to treat coronavirus infection. But the same attention could be devoted to breast milk antibodies as well. The potential of human breast milk antibodies to treat infections was never studied with MERS, SARS or even influenza.

Powell is also willing to pay $5 per ounce of milk from each healthy lactating woman in New York City. She also accepts samples via mail from those residing outside NYC.

“It was never done with SARS, it was never done with MERS, and even for flu, which is so well-studied. The data on milk protection is actually really sparse, unfortunately,” VICE NEWS quoted Powell.