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From: brianm@bigtuna.UUCP (Brian Martin)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: Scary thought about AIDS
Message-ID: <166@bigtuna.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 2-Nov-85 19:14:51 EST
Article-I.D.: bigtuna.166
Posted: Sat Nov  2 19:14:51 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 7-Nov-85 04:54:43 EST
References: <17400010@hpfcla.UUCP>
Reply-To: brianm@bigtuna.UUCP (Brian Martin)
Organization: University of Hawaii, Bekesy Lab, Neurophysiology
Lines: 16

In article <17400010@hpfcla.UUCP> ajs@hpfcla.UUCP writes:
 >What if AIDS had been spreadable by mosquitos?  With its long incubation
 >period we'd almost all have it by now.

This has been checked out by the CDC, and apparently there is no risk 
for transmission of HTLV-III via an insect vector.  I'm not sure of the
reference, but I think it's a recent issue of JAMA, in the "Leads from the
MMWR" section.

By the way, the virus is inactivated by high and low pH and by exposure to a
temperature of 56 C for ten minutes.  Most standard disinfectants (Lysol,
Clorox) and halogenated hand soaps will also inactivate the virus.

Brian Martin
University of Hawaii School of Medicine
UUCP: ..!{dual,ihnp4,vortex}!islenet!bigtuna!brianm