Can HIV/AIDS be transmitted through mosquito bites?
Disease description:
My older sister is 34 years old. After being bitten by an insect, she developed redness, swelling, and itching; in severe cases, blisters even formed. She would like to know whether HIV can be transmitted through mosquito or insect bites.
Doctor's answer (1)
Dr. Wang Xiaoyan
Even being bitten by a mosquito cannot transmit HIV. Currently, HIV is transmitted through three main routes: blood-to-blood contact, sexual contact, and mother-to-child transmission. The blood of individuals infected with HIV contains high levels of the virus; however, when a mosquito bites an infected person, although some virus-containing blood may be ingested, HIV cannot survive or replicate inside the mosquito’s body and is rapidly destroyed by digestive enzymes in the mosquito’s gut. Moreover, mosquitoes do not inject blood into their next host during subsequent bites—instead, they inject saliva to prevent clotting. Even if trace amounts of blood remain on the mosquito’s proboscis, the quantity of virus present is far too low to cause infection, and the virus quickly becomes inactive outside the human body.
