Objectives: Studies have shown that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is primarily transmitted from person to person via airborne droplets. It is unclear whether it can be shed into human milk and transmitted to a child via breastfeeding.We investigated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in human milk samples of 15 mothers with coronavirus disease 19(COVID-19) and in the throat swab samples of their infants. Methods: This is a prospective observational study in which breast milk samples were collected from 15 mothers with COVID-19. The presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the whole human milk samples of the patients was investigated using RT-qPCR. All of the infants underwent a clinical follow-up during their 14-day isolation and their throat swab samples were tested for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Results: Of 15 mothers with COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in milk samples from 4 mothers. The throat swab samples from these mothers’ infants were found to be positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Three of the four mothers were breastfeeding. In addition, during the 14-day isolation, all but three of the mothers breastfed their infants. Of the 12 breastfed infants, while the test for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in throat swab samples was negative in six of the infants, the other six infants, who had mild COVID-19 symptoms, tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA.Clinical outcomes of all mothers and infants were uneventful. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first case series with the largest number of cases with SARS-CoV-2 RNA positivity in human milk samples of mothers with COVID-19. However, we believe that the benefits of breastfeeding may outweigh the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in infants

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a extremely infectious disease, and the current outbreak has been declared by WHO as a global public health threatening. Researches have showed that transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is mainly from person to person via airborne droplets. It is unclear whether SARS-CoV-2 can be shed into human milk and transmitted to a child via breastfeeding. Here we investigated SARS-CoV-2 RNA in breast-milk samples of three mothers with SARS-CoV-2 and their infant. The human milk sample of one mother for SARS-CoV-2 RNA was positive. By contrast, SARS-CoV-2 RNA was not detected in human milk of two mothers.The throat swab sample was also positive in the infant of the mother whose SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in human milk. By contrast, throat swab of others infants was negative. Because the mother with SARS-CoV-2 RNA detected in human milk sample is not breastfeeding, the risk of contagion from the infant to the mother is eliminated. To date, in the literature, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA has only been detected in the breast milk of two mothers with SARS-CoV-2. To the best of our knowledge, our case is third case with SARS-CoV-2 RNA detected in human milk. On the other hand, this is first case with SARS-CoV-2 RNA detected in human milk of mother who does not breastfeed her infant.The existing data indicates that SARS-CoV-2 can be rare transmitted through human milk.