HIV Is NOT Transmitted By:

Insect bites

HIV is not transmitted by mosquitoes, flies, ticks, fleas, bees or wasps. If a bloodsucking insect bites someone with HIV, the virus dies almost instantly in the insect's stomach (as it digests the blood). HIV can only live in human cells.

Mosquitoes cannot transmit HIV for two reasons:

• The mosquito draws blood and injects saliva. The blood from one person is not injected into the mosquito's next victim.
• HIV dies in the mosquito's body. People sometimes are confused because malaria actually reproduces inside the mosquito's digestive track, using the insect as part of its life cycle. HIV does not.

These facts are confirmed by looking at infection patterns. In areas where mosquitoes are common and where HIV is prevalent, the distribution of AIDS cases in the population is not different from other areas. If mosquitoes transmitted HIV, we would be seeing a disproportionate number of children and elderly infected in those areas.

HIV is not transmitted through casual, every day contact. Since HIV is not transmitted by saliva, it is impossible to get it through sharing a glass, a fork, a sandwich, or fruit.

Three studies of household contacts, have shown that AIDS is not casually transmitted by normal activities, even when people are in close living arrangements. All the studies examined households where someone had AIDS to see if any of the other members in that household had become infected (sexual contact was excluded). Many of these households included a small child as the one who has AIDS. These children continued to play with siblings in the manner that children play: wrestling, fighting, spitting, sharing food and clothes, and many other activities. No other member of any of the households shows any sign of being infected. This study shows that AIDS is a difficult disease to get, and that even the intimate exposure common among small children living together is not sufficient to transmit the virus.

Sterilized needles are always used in taking blood from donors, so HIV is not spread in this manner.

The chemicals used in swimming pools and hot tubs would instantly kill any HIV, if the hot water hadn't killed it already.

Humans are the only animals that can harbor HIV. People sometimes think they can get HIV from pets, because some animals carry viruses that produce similar immune deficiencies in their own species, e.g. FIV, feline immunodeficiency virus, in cats, and SIV, simian immunodeficiency virus, in some types of monkeys. However, FIV cannot be transmitted to people, nor can HIV be transmitted from humans to pets such as cats and dogs. (An exception is chimpanzees used in research that have been infected with HIV. Their blood poses a risk to researchers working with them). There have been two reported cases of transmission of SIV to researchers, but no one knows if the virus will cause disease in them.

Transmission can only occur when a sufficient amount of HIV enters the bloodstream, through cuts or mucous membranes. These "bodily fluids" either contain no HIV or it exists in a quantity too small to result in transmission.

HIV is not transmitted by saliva. There is a great deal of evidence to support this fact. In a study of 79 men with AIDS, the virus could be found in the saliva of only one. This man had PCP, thrush, and other mouth and throat lesions. Even in this man, the level of virus found in his saliva was 10,000 times less than the level in his blood. To this study we can add the evidence of the countless numbers of people who have had saliva contact with people with AIDS or others who have been infected. This contact has occurred through kissing, sharing food, sharing joints, and many other means.  Recent findings suggest that saliva contains an enzyme which kills HIV. Certainly there is a lot at work in the mouth combining to make the mouth an inhospitable site for the virus: acids, enzymes, friction, dilution, air, and more.