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» Aids.org » The Body » Cool Nurse » Sexual Health |
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Insects and HIV Transmission HIV and Insect Transmission From the
beginning of the HIV epidemic, there was concern about transmission
of the virus by biting and bloodsucking insects. Studies conducted
by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) and elsewhere have shown no evidence of HIV transmission
through insects - even in areas where there are many cases of
AIDS and large populations of insects, such as mosquitoes. Lack
of such outbreaks, despite intense efforts to detect them, supports
the conclusion that HIV is not transmitted by insects. The results of experiments and observations of insect biting behavior indicate that when an insect bites a person, it does not inject its own or a previously bitten persons or animals blood into the next person bitten. Rather, it injects saliva, which acts as a lubricant or anticoagulant so the insect can feed efficiently. Such diseases as yellow fever and malaria are transmitted through the saliva of specific species of mosquitoes. However, HIV lives for only a short time inside an insect and, unlike organisms that are transmitted via insect bites, HIV does not reproduce (and does not survive) in insects. Thus, even if the virus enters a mosquito or another sucking or biting insect, the insect does not become infected and cannot transmit HIV to the next human it feeds on or bites. HIV is not found in insect feces. There
is also no reason to fear that a biting or bloodsucking insect,
such as a mosquito, could transmit
HIV from one person to another through HIV-infected
blood left on its mouth parts. Two factors serve to explain why
this is so: first, infected people don't have constant high
levels of HIV in their bloodstreams and, second, insect mouth
parts do not retain large amounts of blood on their surfaces.
In addition, scientists who study insects have determined that biting
insects normally do not travel from one person to the next immediately
after ingesting blood. Rather, they fly to a resting place to
digest this blood meal. Sex-Ed101.org - Sexual Health Resource |
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