Can mosquitoes transmit AIDS?
Surveys to determine knowledge regarding AIDS have shown in many countries, including Papua New Guinea, that a large proportion of the literate population still mistakenly believe that mosquitoes can transmit the AIDS virus from one person to another. In this paper we review the theoretical mechanisms which would allow blood-sucking insects such as mosquitoes to transmit virus and discuss the evidence against transmission of HIV by mosquitoes. AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease with no scientific evidence for arthropod transmission.
The HIV virus that produces AIDS in humans does not develop in mosquitoes. Disease transmission by mosquitoes is a very complicated process. If HIV infected blood is taken up by a mosquito the virus is treated like food and digested along with the blood meal. If the mosquito takes a partial blood meal from an HIV positive person and resumes feeding on a non-infected individual, insufficient particles are transferred to initiate a new infection. If a fully engorged mosquito with HIV positive blood is squashed on the skin, there would be insufficient transfer of virus to produce infection. The virus diseases that use insects as agents of transfer produce tremendously high levels of parasites in the blood. The levels of HIV that circulate in human blood are so low that HIV antibody is used as the primary diagnosis for infection. For more information on this subject, please click here.
• HIV DOES NOT replicate in mosquitoes. Thus, mosquitoes cannot be a biological vector as they are for malaria, yellow fever, or dengue. In fact, mosquitoes digest the virus that causes AIDS. • There is no possibility of mechanical transmission (i.e., flying contaminated syringes); even though we all know that HIV can be transmitted by dirty needles. However, the amount of “blood” on a mosquitoes’ mouth parts is tiny compared to what is found on a “dirty” needle. Thus, the risk is proportionally smaller. Calculations based on the mechanical transmission of anthrax and Rift Valley fever virus, both of which produce very high titers in blood, unlike HIV, showed that it would take about 10,000,000 mosquitoes that first fed on a person with AIDS and then continued feeding on a susceptible person to get 1 transmission. • Mosquitoes are not flying hypodermic needles. Mosquitoes regurgitate saliva into the bite wound (the normal route for disease transmission) through a separate tube from tha
The HIV virus that produces AIDS in humans does not develop in mosquitoes. If HIV-infected blood is taken up by a mosquito, the virus is treated like food and digested along with the blood meal. If the mosquito takes a partial blood meal from an HIV-positive person and resumes feeding on a non-infected individual, insufficient particles are transferred to initiate a new infection. If a fully engorged mosquito with HIV-positive blood is squashed on the skin, there is still insufficient transfer to produce infection. The virus diseases that use insects as agents of transfer produce tremendously high levels of parasites in the blood. The levels of HIV that circulate in human blood are so low that, in most cases, HIV antibody must be used as the indicator to diagnosis infection.
