[Karen W.]

Interesting!

[neilep]

LO..Yes, it is interesting isn't it  ?

[Karen W.]

Possibilities are boundless!  There is alot we don't know and much more we need to learn about this disease as well as its ability to spread!!

[DrN]

the sterility thing would surely only work for monogamous species. are mosquitos monogamous?

[WylieE]

I just couldn't resist the title of this article

Mosquitoes Are Not Flying Hypodermic Needles

Many people think of mosquitoes as tiny, flying hypodermic syringes, and if hypodermic needles can successfully transmit HIV from one individual to another then mosquitoes ought to be able to do the same. We have already seen that HIV-infected individuals do not circulate enough virus particles to result in infection by contamination. However, even if HIV-positive individuals did circulate high levels of virus, mosquitoes could not transmit the virus by the methods that are employed in used syringes. Most people have heard that mosquitoes regurgitate saliva before they feed, but are unaware that the food canal and salivary canal are separate passageways in the mosquito. The mosquito's feeding apparatus is an extremely complicated structure that is totally unlike the crude single-bore syringe. Unlike a syringe, the mosquito delivers salivary fluid through one passage and draws blood up another. As a result, the food canal is not flushed out like a used needle, and blood flow is always unidirectional. The mechanics involved in mosquito feeding are totally unlike the mechanisms employed by the drug user's needles. In short, mosquitoes are not flying hypodermic needles and a mosquito that disgorges saliva into your body is not flushing out the remnants of its last blood meal.

For more in depth information on this topic see Staff Paper #I, Do Insects Transmit AIDS?, OTA series on AIDS-Related Issues, Health Program, Office of Technology Assessment, United States Congress, Washington, D.C. 20510-8025.

This is pretty much just what has already been covered in the forum, but I just was thinking Flying Hypodermic Needles sounds like a good band name or basketball team (no one would want to play against them ewwww). 

Anyway there's a nice summary on this page of many reasons why mosquitoes are not transmitters of AIDS
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~insects/aids.htm
c-ya
Colleen
PS I think female mosquitoes are monogamous but males aren't - but I don't know if this is true for all mosquitoes or just some.

[Karen W.]

YAYYYYYY< Thanks for thye cool links! I like the title too!

[moonfire]

LO..Yes, it is interesting isn't it  ?

Yes, it is Neilsy...hehe

[Karen W.]

LOL LOL>>> he is always making that little faux pas!! LOL

[Mjhavok]

Mosquitoes don't transmit HIV. Malaria although microscopic is a vary different organism to HIV and has evolved in ways that allows it to be transmitted by mosquitoes (the vector).

[Injunear]

So, how come mosquitos can transmit other viruses like the West Nile Virus?

There's got to be something in mosquitos that kills the HIV virus.

Or, as some suggested, the HIV must be injected en masse.  Doesn't make sense to me.

[another_someone]

So, how come mosquitos can transmit other viruses like the West Nile Virus?

There's got to be something in mosquitos that kills the HIV virus.

Or, as some suggested, the HIV must be injected en masse.  Doesn't make sense to me.

There are many species of mosquito.  Not all species of mosquito transmit all diseases, and in fact most diseases are only transmitted by one or two species of mosquito, the disease having adapted to take advantage of the mosquito (hence why there are still many mosquitoes in northern climates, but none presently transmit malaria, although mosquitoes that spread malaria did live throughout Europe in earlier times).

I doubt that the species of mosquito that spreads West Nile fever is the same species that is responsible for the spread of malaria.

HIV is too new an infection to have developed the ability to survive within a mosquito (the HIV virus is a very fragile virus as viruses go, and in fact it is not that easy to get infected by HIV - you need to get pretty intimate to do it, unlike diseases like the common cold, smallpox, or even poliomyelitis).

[paul.fr]

HIV is not transmitted by mosquitoes. If a bloodsucking insect bites someone with HIV, the virus dies almost instantly in the insect's stomach (as it digests the blood). HIV can only live in human cells.
such studies have been done on this:

These facts are confirmed by looking at infection patterns. In areas where mosquitoes are common and where HIV is prevalent, the distribution of AIDS cases in the population is not different from other areas. If mosquitoes transmitted HIV, they would be seeing a disproportionate number of children and elderly infected in those areas.

[Carol-A]

The malarial parasite has a whole stage of its life cycle in the mosquito! The organisms passed to us from the mosquito are found in the salivary glands of the insect, and so are in the fluid actually injected during the bite. For HIV to pass this way, the virus would have to migrate from the stomach of the mosquito to the salivary gland in order to be injected.

[smartbutdumb]

This is a resounding NO, they cant spread HIV . This virus is only spread via exchange in bodily fluids. Mosquittos are vectors for other viruses such as Maleria.

[Andrew K Fletcher]

What if a mozzi is interrupted during it's feed then decides it's still hungry and chooses another host?

i suspect that the HIV virus in human blood, when aspirated by the mosquito gets disrupted as the virus was very host specific and also the mosquito takes some time for next feed, so, the viruses may be killed, as the virus will be alive for very few second outside the host (primates). too, mosquitoes will never inject the aspirated blood.

[Mjhavok]

This is a resounding NO, they cant spread HIV . This virus is only spread via exchange in bodily fluids. Mosquittos are vectors for other viruses such as Maleria.

Just to let you know that the malaria is caused by a blood sporozoan, the worst of which is Plasmodium falciparum. It is not a virus. Malaria is the disease and not the causative agent. Transmission to humans is by the bloodsucking bite of female Anopheles mosquitoes of various species.

HIV in humans originated from cross-species infections by simian viruses in rural Africa, probably due to direct contact with infected primate blood. The virus simply hasn't evolved to be able to survive in a mosquito and probably would need extensive changes done to it before it could do so, if it is even possible at all.

[Mjhavok]

Anyway there's a nice summary on this page of many reasons why mosquitoes are not transmitters of AIDS
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~insects/aids.htm

I am being a bit pedantic but this is my area of education(just finished 3rd year of a microbiology degree). AIDS is not what is transmitted. HIV is what is transmitted. People who get infected with enough HIV can eventually develop AIDS but with drug therapy this can be staved off.

[stana]

HIV is not transmitted by mosquitoes, flies, ticks, fleas, bees or wasps. If a bloodsucking insect bites someone with HIV, the virus dies almost instantly in the insect's stomach (as it digests the blood). HIV can only live in human cells.

Mosquitoes cannot transmit HIV for two reasons:

The mosquito draws blood and injects saliva. The blood from one person is not injected into the mosquito's next victim.
HIV dies in the mosquito's body. People sometimes are confused because malaria actually reproduces inside the mosquito's digestive tract, using the insect as part of its life cycle. HIV does not.
These facts are confirmed by looking at infection patterns. In areas where mosquitoes are common and where HIV is prevalent, the distribution of AIDS cases in the population is not different from other areas. If mosquitoes transmitted HIV, they would be seeing a disproportionate number of children and elderly infected in those areas.

http://www.sfaf.org/aids101/transmission.html#insects