HIV spreads through bodily fluid exchange, but why can’t mosquitoes sucking blood spread it?
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The virus cannot survive or reproduce in the mosquito. Mosquitos take about a couple days to digest the blood they consume, essentially the time between blood consumption, and the virus dies in that time.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9795564
The mosquito doesn’t have the right setup to keep the HIV virions from dying. It’s *digesting* that blood. Even fluids fresh off the human only keep HIV alive for a few minutes once outside of the body. That’s why most infections occur from very speedy fluid transfers.
There are 3 key factors.
1. Mosquitos don’t inject blood into people when they bite, they suck blood out. They DO inject saliva, but in tiny amounts
2. HIV can’t survive in a mosquito
3. Even if they could inject blood into you, the amount they do wouldn’t contain nearly enough of the HIV virus for you to develop the disease.
https://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/viruses101/why_cant_mosquitos_transmit_hiv/
The mosquito doesn’t have the right setup to keep the HIV virions from dying. It’s *digesting* that blood. Even fluids fresh off the human only keep HIV alive for a few minutes once outside of the body. That’s why most infections occur from very speedy fluid transfers.
The mosquito doesn’t have the right setup to keep the HIV virions from dying. It’s *digesting* that blood. Even fluids fresh off the human only keep HIV alive for a few minutes once outside of the body. That’s why most infections occur from very speedy fluid transfers.
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.
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.
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.
There’s a Tamil movie where AIDS spreads through a tender coconut seller. Not like, FROM him. Ltrly through him SELLING a tender coconut. So apparently he has AIDS, and while slicing a tender coconut open he accidentally cuts himself a little and the blood falls into the coconut or the straw or something like that. The protagonist drinks it. And she gets AIDS and her life ruined, her family wouldn’t believe her when she says she’s never done the deed for her to contract AIDS so she gets ostracized. It’s actually quite a good movie, but is this even possible?
Edit: i looked it up and apparently she gets infected through a wound in her mouth after an injury while having coconut water; the seller had inadvertently shed his blood into the straw while cutting open the coconut. This possible?
There’s a Tamil movie where AIDS spreads through a tender coconut seller. Not like, FROM him. Ltrly through him SELLING a tender coconut. So apparently he has AIDS, and while slicing a tender coconut open he accidentally cuts himself a little and the blood falls into the coconut or the straw or something like that. The protagonist drinks it. And she gets AIDS and her life ruined, her family wouldn’t believe her when she says she’s never done the deed for her to contract AIDS so she gets ostracized. It’s actually quite a good movie, but is this even possible?
Edit: i looked it up and apparently she gets infected through a wound in her mouth after an injury while having coconut water; the seller had inadvertently shed his blood into the straw while cutting open the coconut. This possible?
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