Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ginosko!usc!orion.cf.uci.edu!uci-ics!zardoz!hrc!gtx!sue
From: sue@gtx.com (Sue Miller)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: What's the Why and How of Mosquito Bites?
Message-ID: <1134@gtx.com>
Date: 17 Aug 89 05:49:53 GMT
References: <5399@mtgzy.att.com> <4948@tank.uchicago.edu> <9263@chinet.chi.il.us> <6704@cs.utexas.edu> <9279@chinet.chi.il.us>
Reply-To: sue@gtx.UUCP (Sue Miller)
Organization: GTX Corporation, Phoenix, Arizona
Lines: 55

Jack Schmidling writes:
- 
-Turpin says: 
- 
->The diseases that mosquitos vector,such as malaria and dengue fever, are  
->ones where the disease agent also infects the mosquito.  The malarial  
->plasmodium........... 
- 
- 
-ARF says: 
- 
-You come dangerously close to evading the issue by changing the subject to  
-complex, multi-species vectors.  However, you seem to make a case for the  
-ease with which AIDS could be vectored because it requires only a simple  
-blood transfer.  The virus need only stay alive long enough for the transfer. 

  I don't see where Russell changed the subject.  He states very clearly
that the only diseases which mosquitoes can transmit are ones which also
infect the mosquito.  The mosquito does not transfer blood from host to host.
The mosquito sucks a bunch of blood, then digests it.  The host gets a
shot of mosquito saliva per each bite, which may harbor bacteria/virii if
the the infectious organism can live in the mosquito.  HIV has shown itself
to be unable to survive in a mosquito, therefore you cannot get AIDS from
a mosquito bite. 
- 
->The mosquito very efficiently draws blood in only one direction. 
->For this reason, it does not act to transfer blood from host to 
->host........... 
- 
-ARF says: 
- 
-Have you never smashed a blood-gorged mosquito sitting on your arm?  All the  
-senario needs to transfer, is for the mosquito to have taken a prior, partial  
-meal, from an AIDS carrier. 

  So don't squash a mosquito on your arm when you have open sores on it.
- 
- 
-Certainly not improbable enough to ignore as seems to be the case. 

  Huh?  Did you mean to say that you think this is something to worry
about?  I'd be morely to worry about a 747 falling down on my house.
That, at least, has documented occurrences.  Researchers have spent
many hours looking for insect vectors for the HIV/HTLV (whatever) group
of virii and have thus far found none.  There is no mechanism, and no
corroborative statistical evidence (like patterns of AIDS infection matching
up with other mosquito-borne infections), so I dunno why anyone'd be 
nervous.
 

-- 
             listen: there's a hell of a good universe next door; 
                             let's go.        
   __________________________________       ee cummings
  |Sue Miller ...!sun!sunburn!gtx!sue|