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From: pell@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Anthony Pelletier)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: What's the Why and How of Mosquito Bites?
Message-ID: <10817@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Date: 17 Aug 89 16:48:23 GMT
References: <5399@mtgzy.att.com> <4948@tank.uchicago.edu> <9263@chinet.chi.il.us> <6704@cs.utexas.edu> <9279@chinet.chi.il.us>
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In article <9279@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?  

Yes, and Turpin gave you a reference, of sorts, the Sci Am issue devoted
to AIDS.  The epidemiological data ARE "real data."
If by "real data" you mean has anyone filled a room up with mosquitos and
had them feed on an AIDS patient, then put a non-infected person in the
room, well, no ARF, I doubt anyone has done that experiment.

>Turpin says: 
> 
> [What Turpin said was clear and informative.  Re:probability in Bio and such]
> 
>ARF says: 
> 
[Very little of note, as usual]

>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! 

Russel gave the reasons why it is unlikely.  As he said, all the diseases that
are transmitted by the beasts have the mosquito as a host.  I can't improve on
his essay reguarding the thing being technically possible, but highly
improbable.

As a molecular biologist, I am quite impressed by what one can learn from
epidemiology.  Did you know, for example, the the epidemiologists predicted
the causative agent would be a virus, based on the studies in Africa?
I consider the epidemiological data to be "real data."
In any case, they are the best data we are likely to get, since noone
is going to do the controled experiment.
Some reports on epidemiology that can be found in the Sci. Am. to which
Russel referred you might enlighten you a bit.
It is perhaps not as rare as a virgin birth, but very unlikely for AIDS
to be transmitted by mosquitos.
The data you claim to seek are right there for you.  Read them.

-tony