Can mosquitoes transmit HIV?

Can bloodsucking mosquitoes which transmit malaria also transmit HIV?

My friend’s six-year-old daughter asked him this question and I could see that he struggled to give the right answer because the little girl seemed to have all the facts right.

As you may know, malaria is transmitted by the female Anopheles mosquito, which sucks blood from humans infected with malaria and then deposits it into another.

The little girl, who said she is doing Grade II, said she watched on National Geographic how the female mosquito was able to transmit the disease.

Scientists claim there are about 430　Anopheles　species and between 30 to 40 can transmit malaria, although only the females suck blood.

The mosquitoes suck blood and then move on to another person but, before they suck out more blood, they have to inject saliva to make it easier to suck the blood up.

By so doing they then deposit the malaria virus to the next person and this results in the person getting malaria.

The good thing about malaria, though, is that although it can be a killer disease, it is preventable with the right medication and also curable when diagnosed in good time.

Malaria-inflicting mosquitoes are considered Africa’s most ruthless killers and more　children　die of malaria in Africa than any other illness.

HIV, however, is slightly different as it may lead to the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which in turn can lead to death.

The big question now is: "Can the female Anopheles, or any other species of mosquitoes, transmit HIV in the same way they do malaria?

If HIV can be transmitted through blood transfusions, it is only logical that bloodsucking mosquitoes can also transmit it, right? Wrong.

Medical experts who have thoroughly researched this topic say the answer is no. Mosquitoes cannot transmit HIV. So now the question is; how can they transmit malaria and not HIV?

There is more than one reason why scientists believe bloodsucking mosquitoes cannot transmit HIV.

According to the Center for Vector Biology　in New Jersey, USA, it is not likely that mosquitoes can transmit HIV because for a mosquito to do so the virus must remain alive after the mosquito has sucked the blood from an infected person.

The malaria causing-parasite has adapted to living in the mosquito and can survive up to two days within the mosquito’s body, but this is not the case with HIV.

Mosquitoes that ingest HIV-infected blood digest the blood and completely destroy the virus.

This means that the HIV will not be able to pass back through the salivary glands when blood is being sucked from another person.

Another reason given by the Center for Vector Biology is that mosquitoes do　not ingest enough blood to contain enough HIV viruses to transmit AIDS.Lastly, the Center reports that a mosquito’s　feeding apparatus (it’s ‘mouth’) is an extremely complicated structure that is totally unlike the single-bore syringe used to draw blood by people.

Especially worth noting is that the mosquito delivers salivary fluid through one passage and draws blood up another.

This means that, although it sucks blood, the contents, when being redeposited, changes as it passes through the digestion process which destroys the HIV.

So the answer is a big NO, bloodsucking mosquitoes cannot transmit HIV.

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