Mosquitos and HIV - why not?

[Sam]

FYI


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: jbi...@gmail.com <jbi...@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 11:17 AM
Subject: HIV Transmittal
To: connell....@gmail.com


Professor Connell,

Read the following information and wanted to pass it on..
http://www.thaibugs.com/Articles/amazing_mosquito_facts.htm

Why don't mosquitoes transmit HIV virus?
Studies with HIV clearly show that the virus responsible for the AIDS
infection is regarded as food to the mosquito and is digested along
with the blood meal.
Mosquitoes Do Not Ingest Enough HIV Particles to Transmit AIDS by
Contamination
An AIDS-free individual would have to be bitten by 10 million
mosquitoes that had begun feeding on an AIDS carrier to receive a
single unit of HIV from contaminated mosquito mouthparts.Most people
have heard that mosquitoes regurgitate saliva before they feed, but
are unaware that the food canal and salivary canal are separate
passageways in the mosquito. The mosquito's feeding apparatus is an
extremely complicated structure that is totally unlike the crude
single-bore syringe. Unlike a syringe, the mosquito delivers salivary
fluid through one passage and draws blood up another. As a result, the
food canal is not flushed out like a used needle, and blood flow is
always unidirectional. The mechanics involved in mosquito feeding are
totally unlike the mechanisms employed by the drug user's needles. In
short, mosquitoes are not flying hypodermic needles and a mosquito
that disgorges saliva into your body is not flushing out the remnants
of its last blood meal.
Rutgers Cooperative Extension Fact Sheet # FS736