Can I get HIV if a mosquito has bitten someone with HIV? Why or why not? Does it make a difference if the person is standing beside me and the mosquito bites me after biting them?
In: Biology
>Mosquitoes can spread a range of infections, such as malaria and dengue fever, but they are not able to transmit HIV. This is because: They lack the human T-cells needed in the body for the virus to replicate and survive, which means they cannot be infected with HIV.
from [aidsmap.com](https://www.aidsmap.com/about-hiv/faq/can-mosquitoes-transmit-hiv)
Hey,looks like things could always be worse.
Mosquitoes aren’t like sharing a syringe. None of the blood they drink comes into contact with their next victim. The only infections they can spread are the ones that can make their way from their stomachs to their salivary glands. There are several infections that have specialized into this, but HIV is not one of them.
only someone infected can transfer it to another person.
HIV binds to T cells in a person and replicates.
but mosquito does not have T cells. so naturally it gets broken down and gets digested instead.
so mosquito cannot get infected and cannot infect others.
The thing about diseases that you can catch from mosquitos is the disease infects the mosquito as well as humans.
The disease needs to get into the mosquito’s saliva, which it injects into you when feeding.
For HIV it can’t infect the mosquito so just gets digested in the mosquito’s gut. Mosquitos keep their mouth clean enough that there is no known cases of infection from just the bite.
I’m in high school so don’t take what I say as fully correct. I have limited understanding.
so what HIV basically does is attack a certain type of immune cell. We have 2 (excluding non-specific cells) main immune cells: T cell and B cell.
HIV is so bad because it attacks and takes over T cells, making your immune system compromised. HIV only reproduces inside T cells.
These T cells are not found in mosquitoes. So HIV cannot replicate.
Malaria is arguably much worse than HIV.
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