Malaria Treatment FAQ:
I know that mosquitoes do not inject blood into the person the are biting, but rather injest the blood. However, how come they are able to transfer malaria (a blood virus) and not HIV?
I know that mosquitoes do not inject blood into the person the are biting, but rather injest the blood. However, how come they are able to transfer malaria (a blood virus) and not HIV?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Mosquitos actually “spit” a bit of saliva into the person they are biting. This saliva can contain the malaria parasite, which has been carried inside the mosquito from its last malaria-infected victim.
HIV cannot survive inside a mosquito, and it is a virus rather than a parasite. HIV also cannot reliably survive in saliva. If a mosquito bites someone with HIV, the virus will not survive inside the mosquito. Even if it did, the amount of blood is so small that the viral load of this blood would make it unlikely to infect anyone else.
A mosquito bites an infected person and becomes infected with malaria. An infected mosquito bites another person and the parasites enter the bloodstream and travel to the liver of the person.
When the malaria parasite is ****** into the mosquito’s stomach, it burrows into the stomach lining and develops by the process of sporogony to form sporozoites which are then injected into the human victim. If the mosquito ***** blood containing HIV, the virus will simply be digested. Although other mosquito such as Aedes and Culex are capable of transmitting viral diseases (dengue, viral encephalitis and yellow fever), the Anopheles mosquito which transmits malaria doesn’t seem to be able of handle viruses which is good news for us.
Pellegrini Kitara-Okot
http:www.malariapreventiontips.com
HIV attacks an immune system. Certian white blood cells, the mosquito lacks these cells and glycoprotiens, thus the virus can never get attached and attack the mosquitos immune system. If it did manage to, the mosquito would not live very long.