Can HIV/AIDS be transmitted through mosquito bites?
Disease description:
My older brother is 35 years old this year. As mosquito populations increase, he tends to develop redness, swelling, and itching after insect bites; in severe cases, blisters may even form. He would like to know whether HIV/AIDS can be transmitted through mosquito or insect bites.
Doctor's answer (1)
Dr. Wang Xiaoyan
Even if bitten by a mosquito, one cannot contract HIV. HIV is transmitted through three primary routes: blood-to-blood contact, sexual contact, and mother-to-child transmission. The blood of individuals living with HIV contains high levels of the virus; however, when a mosquito bites such a person, although it ingests virus-containing blood, 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 previously ingested blood into their next host. Even if minute traces of blood remain on the mosquito’s proboscis, the quantity of virus is far too low to cause infection, and the virus quickly becomes inactive outside the human body.
