2.5. Can mosquitoes or other insects transmit AIDS?
Description
This article is from the AIDS FAQ, by Dan Greening with numerous contributions by others.
2.5. Can mosquitoes or other insects transmit AIDS?
From: CDC National AIDS Clearinghouse
From the onset of the HIV epidemic, there has been concern about
transmission of the virus by biting and blood-sucking
insects. However, studies conducted by researchers at CDC and
elsewhere have shown no evidence of HIV transmission through
insects--even in areas where there are many cases of AIDS and large
populations of insects such as mosquitoes. Lack of such outbreaks,
despite intense efforts to detect them, supports the conclusion that
HIV is not transmitted by insects.
The results of experiments and observations of insect biting behavior
indiciate that when an insect bites a person, it does not inject its
own or a previous victim's blood into the new victim. Rather, it
injects saliva. Such diseases as yellow fever and malaria are
transmitted through the saliva of specific species of
mosquitoes. However, HIV lives for only a short time inside an insect
and, unlike organisms that are transmitted via insect bites, HIV does
not reproduce (and, therefore, cannot survive) in insects. Thus, even
if the virus enters a mosquito or another sucking or biting insect,
the insect does not become infected and cannot transmit HIV to the
next human it feeds on or bites.
There is also no reason to fear that a biting or blood-sucking insect,
such as a mosquito, could transmit HIV from one person to another
through HIV-infected blood left on its mouth parts. Two factors
combine to make infection by this route extremely unlikely-- first,
infected people do not have constant, high levels of HIV in their
bloodstreams and, second, insect mouth parts do not retain large
amounts of blood on their surfaces. Further, scientists who study
insects have determined that biting insects normally do not travel
from one person to the next immediately after ingesting blood.
........................................
An interesting paper is:
Do Insects Transmit Aids?
by Lawrence Miike
Health Program; Office of Technology Assessment United States
Congress; Washington D.C. 20510-8025 September 1987 -- A Staff Paper
in OTA's Series on AIDS-Related Issues
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington, D.C. 20402
This paper indicates that "The conditions necessary for successful
transmission of HIV through insect bites, and the probabilities of
their occurring, rule out the possiblility of insect transmission of
HIV infection as a significant factor in the way AIDS is spread. If
insect transmission is occurring at all, each case would be a rare and
unusual event."
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