Re: Mosquitoes and H.I.V.

"Robert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> "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.

That is not necessarily true. If a female mosquito is disturbed while
feeding, she will fly away and she will continue feeding - possibly on
another person. The first thing she does then is to inject a small
amount of saliva into the bloodstream, which may contain blood (cells)
from the previous meal. In this way it is theoretically possible that
HIV is transmitted.

However, as you correctly state later in your posting, HIV doesn't
survive in mosquitoes. In fact, the virus is probably killed
immediately during a bloodmeal because of the pH inside the mosquito.
Even if it would survive, the amount of HIV transmitted to the next
person is probably too low for an infection to take hold.

Frank