HIV spreads through bodily fluid exchange, but why can’t mosquitoes sucking blood spread it?

Question

HIV spreads through bodily fluid exchange, but why can’t mosquitoes sucking blood spread it?

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Answer 1

Viruses are not alive, at least not as particles. Particles have no metabolism, no ability to make no proteins, and no ability to replicate or repair their genetic material.

HIV persists in the human body because it is constantly replicating. However, the HIV virion is very fragile and only 1/100,000-1,000,000 are actually viable and infectious.

So once a mosquito drinks blood from someone infected with HIV, the virus cannot infect the mosquito and replicate so the few virions it ate will degrade and be rendered non-infectious.

There are other viruses that can be spread by mosquitoes. We call these “arboviruses,” for “arthropod-borne viruses.” Zika, many of the encephalitis viruses, yellow fever virus, and hemorrhagic fevers like dengue are all arboviruses.