Re: Mosquitoes and H.I.V.

"rob" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Why do mosquitoes not transmit H.I.V?
Only female mosquitoes have blood meals and they only have one meal per day.
They do not go from one meal immediately to another nearby person.
The virus must survive within the mosquitoes body in between meals. Some
clearly do while others seem not to.
Viruses have specific receptors to which they enter the cell. In the case of
HIV it is the B cell lymph and mosquitoes don't have lymphs or receptors for
that virus in which to attach as far as we know.
West Nile virus etc seem to be different as either the virus has a mosquito
receptor or it is passively hearty enough to survive long enough to be
transmitted on the next meal.
Some viruses like hepatitis have a strong envelop in which they are able to
survive outside the body and these would seem to be better candidates for
passive transmission while HIV is relatively weak in surviving for long
periods of time outside the body.
Never say never only that it is very much less likely.