Skip to main content

CAN MOSQUITOES TRANSMIT DISEASES LIKE AIDS? 

Mosquitoes suck whole blood together with all its contained viruses, bacteria and other pathogens, including HIV. Luckily for humans, the HIV virus cannot be spread by mosquitoes.
This is because of several reasons accounting for the inability of mosquitoes to transmit HIV.
First of all, the feeding mechanism of mosquitoes does not promote transmission, it is not like a hypodermic needle injecting blood .
The sucking "snout" of a mosquito is has six mouthparts. Four of these are used for piercing the skin that the mosquito is biting. The other two mouth parts consist of two tubes. One tube sends saliva into the host and the other sends blood up into the mosquito.
This two tube system does not allow for mixing. It is one major reason why mosquitoes are unable to transmit HIV. Only saliva is injected into humans when a mosquito bites and thus HIV positive blood that a mosquito may have previously ingested is never transmitted to other humans.
In addition, unlike with mosquito borne diseases, HIV is unable to replicate within the mosquito's gut. This is because the receptors that HIV requires to replicate are not present in mosquitoes. In humans, HIV must bind to CD4 T cells and the CCR5 or the CXCR4 co-receptors to begin replicating. No such cells and co-receptors exist inside the mosquito's gut. Thus, the virus has no way of replicating or migrating to the mosquito's salivary glands. Instead, HIV particles are digested by the mosquito alongside its blood meal. During this digestion process, HIV particles are completely destroyed.
Finally, mosquitoes suck only 0.0005 ml of blood per meal. There is very little virus in that volume. Coupled with the unique feeding mechanism of mosquitoes described above, it would take about ten million mosquito bites to transmit one unit of HIV.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

KIDS AND PORNOGRAPHY - HOW TO STOP THEM Do you know what your teenager/younger one is doing on that data enabled phone or iPad??* Don't be caught unaware. Pornography is available with just one click. How about social media? Do you have any control over how much time they spend on it when they should be studying or sleeping? I am sure you worry about these things even though you realize that they need these devices as a means of communication and even learning. But as good parents, we must protect the minds of our teenagers and children. I thought it was a joke when my pastor's wife told me that there is a mobile application that I can download, just like I downloaded WhatsApp.  I did not believe it could actually protect my son until I tried it out myself. I have visited www.mindguard.com.ng and I have downloaded the parent app on my phone and the digital coach on my child's phone so that I can protect him from the dangers associated with the internet without...
WHAT A GREAT STORY *This is a great story. Take a moment to read it; I Pray it will make your day* A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.. When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son. About a month later, just before Christmas, There was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands.. He said, 'Sir, you don't know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly... He often talked about you, and your love for art.' The young man held out this package. 'I know this isn't much. I'm...
The importance of Giving! As you probably recall, the Dead Sea is really a Lake, not a sea. It’s so high in salt content that the human body can float easily. The salt in the Dead Sea is as high as 35% - almost 10 times the normal ocean water. And all that saltiness has meant that there is no life at all in the Dead Sea. And hence the name: Dead Sea. The other Sea is the Sea of Galilee. It happens that the Sea of Galilee is just north of the Dead Sea. Both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea receive their water from river Jordan. And yet, they are very, very different. Unlike the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee is pretty, resplendent with rich, colourful marine life. Same region, same source of water, and yet while one sea is full of life, the other is dead. How come? Here’s apparently why. The River Jordan flows into the Sea of Galilee and then flows out. The water simply passes through the Sea of Galilee in and then out - and that keeps the sea healthy and vibrant, teemi...