I was recently asked if you could get HIV from a mosquito bites. I know you can’t because they have a certain enzyme that prevents them from spreading it but I don’t really know why. I am worried that I might give wrong information. I need some confirmation about HIV transmits by mosquito bites.
You were right; HIV cannot be transmitted from an insect to a human. Take the example of malaria. Malaria gets into the blood of a mosquito and lodges itself into the salivary glands of the mosquito and then it is transmitted into a human through the saliva of the mosquito. The malaria protozoan can mutate and develop in the saliva of the mosquito, but HIV is a virus that reproduces in the blood cells that a human has not the cells of an insect. HIV needs a different kind of host than an insect to develop, although it can live in an insect for a very short amount of time, so it simply cannot reproduce in a mosquito because of the lack of blood cells.
What a comprehensive and well written answer!
The concept that mosquitoes do not transmit HIV was established in the 1980s. As discussed in my recent papers, the data collected in the early studies, that was used to formulate the concept, actually supported mosquitoes as the important risk factor, but, was distortedly interpreted. Therefore, mosquitoes have been excluded from the prevention strategy.
HIV prevention has failed. It’s time to reevaluate our understanding of HIV transmission.