Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!chinet!arf
From: arf@chinet.chi.il.us (Jack Schmidling)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: What's the Why and How of Mosquito Bites?
Summary: not quite as improbable as a virgin birth...
Message-ID: <9279@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 15 Aug 89 22:27:52 GMT
References: <5399@mtgzy.att.com> <4948@tank.uchicago.edu> <9263@chinet.chi.il.us> <6704@cs.utexas.edu>
Organization: Chinet - Chicago, Ill.
Lines: 44


virgin/e6 
 
Article 2384 (3 more) in sci.bio: 
From: turpin@cs.utexas.edu (Russell Turpin) 
Subject: Re: What's the Why and How of Mosquito Bites? 
Summary: Mosquitos as vectors of diseases. 
 
In article <9263@chinet.chi.il.us>, arf@chinet.chi.il.us (Jack Schmidling)  
writes: 
> Does anyone have any, non-political, "real" data on studies   
> of AIDS transmission via blood sucking insects?  
 
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. 
 
>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. 
 
Not quite as improbable as your virgin birth! 
 
Certainly not improbable enough to ignore as seems to be the case. 
 
The Amateur Radio Forum (arf) 
 
sorry for the sp but can't edit and did't see before