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Can you get AIDS from a mosquito bite?

While it is NOT impossible, contracting AIDS from an insect bite is EXTREMELY unlikely.

Why is it so unlikely? Let's look at what would have to happen for, say, a mosquito to infect someone with HIV.

First of all, the mosquito would have to bite a person infected with HIV.

possibly 28 million people on this planet are infected with HIV.

This person would also have to be in a stage of infection when HIV particles are in the blood.

The amount of infectious HIV praticles found in the blood changes over the course of an infection.

The blood taken by the mosquito would have to have HIV particles in it.

Since the mosquito is NOT part of the HIV "life cycle" , the transfer of the virus would be entirely up to chance events.

During a bite, the mosquito injects saliva into your blood. This keeps your blood liquid, and easy for the mosquito to take. The mosquito drinks, and leaves. Any mosquito saliva left is all that could contain a possible HIV particle. It looks like a mosquito does not transfer much from "meal to meal". So, the odds are very minimal of getting AIDS from a mosquito.

These HIV particles would have to somehow get into the saliva of the mosquito, and then be transferred to a new person.

More information:
• from the Mad Scientist Network archive: RE: Mosquitos ans HIV by Mark Friedman, Thu Apr 25 10:44:35 1996: MSN archives
  
• A good discussion on why insect bites are not likely to transmit HIV can be found here
  
• info from the CDC
  
• A great list of links to information on AIDS and HIV can be found here
  

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