Question: |
Why cannot mosquitoes transmit AIDS? |
Category: |
Diseases & Conditions > Infectious Disease |
Keywords: |
mosquitoes, transmit, spread, AIDS, HIV, virus |
Type: |
why |
Rating: (0 ratings) Views: 95 Discussions: 0 In Watch Lists: 1 |
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Answer:
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One possible reason is that the HIV virus (which is thought to cause AIDS) is a very fragile virus. No one seriously believes that an HIV virus could be taken up by one mosquito and stay alive long enough in that mosquito to infect someone else.
A more practical problem is that it would be hard to test, no one has shown that it is possible to transmit the HIV virus via a mosquito vector or that someone's HIV infection is from a mosquito bite.
Just to add fuel to the fire. A report from the BBC on AIDS infected tribes in Africa indicated that some of the infected groups were, indeed, isolated and did not interact with other tribes, but still got the virus. The health investigators asked how this could happen, the doctors said they did not know but they suspected the mosquito. They said to date they had not found one carrying the virus but they were continuing their search.
Sources:
[1] Psych, Thomasb, "Mosquitoes and AIDS", Online posting. NEWTON BBS Ask a Scientist.
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