Do mosquitoes transmit AIDS?
• A: HIV is a disease of the blood that causes AIDS. It disables the body’s immune system, causing those who have the disease to become sick and die from other infections. So it seems logical that a mosquito could pick up this virus from an infected person and transmit it to another person, much like Malaria is transmitted. In order to answer this question let’s consider several angles. HIV doesn’t do so well outside of the human body. Inside the mosquito, HIV cannot replicate. The mosquito does not become HIV-infected. Unlike other mosquito-borne diseases, HIV does not have the mechanisms necessary to travel out of the mosquito’s gut. The mosquito digests the blood that it consumes, including the HIV. Inside the human bloodstream, HIV does not produce high virus particle levels, as do other diseases. About 70 to 80% of HIV-infected persons have undetectable levels of virus particles in their blood. This makes it virtually impossible for a mosquito to pick up a single HIV virus. Perhap
