Can virus be transmitted mosquitoes?

[GrandOak]

Last night as I was swating our second state bird (Yes up here in the great white north mosquitoes can grow as big as sparrows ;-) I was contemplating if HCV can be transmitted by mosquitoes (much like West Nile, etc.) since they can draw infect blood and move one to bite someone who is not infected?

Should I be concerned that my disease could be transmitted to family and friends this way and as such avoid outdoor functions?

[tweakedone9]

MOSQUITOS

Researchers have determined that the hepatitis C virus is not transmitted by mosquitos. There is a lack of epidemiological or physical evidence that it is mosquito-borne and experiments to see any HCV replication in mosquito cells have failed.

There are two ways that mosquitos can transmit illness to humans.

These are “mechanical transmission” in which a small amount of blood may be present on the mosquito’s feeding spike.

This type of transmission does not occur with serious human diseases such as HCV, HBV, or HIV. The second way mosquitoes transmit disease is called “biological” transmission. Studies show that mosquitoes can swallow viruses into their middle gut, but once there the virus dies and is digested in the same way we digest food - by breaking it down using acid.

[52TELE]

Jim, a little off subject but... not . Have you read much about the 1918 Influenza? I've been reading "The Great Influenza" by John Barry . That was a seriously nasty virus.

[52TELE]

Thats a good question , and I have another one I've been thinking about. If I have a cut or similar abraison in my mouth , and it bleeds , do I then have the virus in my mouth , and can it live in saliva? What keeps it from being present in all of our body fluids?

[ohgreat]

"How did you biopsy go?"  

I find out friday.  :(  My break up with my girlfriend knocked me on my butt for about a few weeks and I didnt follow up on my appointment scheduling until a week or so afterwards.  Friday is the big day.

-edit (its probably more like 1-60 not 1-50 like I said earlier... if there are 300 million americans and 5 mil believed to have it)

[GrandOak]

I considered the same suggested number of infections and the possibility. But then considered that West Nile can be transmitted by a mosquitoe even after it has digested the infected blood.  However, HCV relies on the makeup of plasma to maintain it's existence.  So I extrapolated that if a mosquitoe digested the infected blood, then the likelyhood of it transmitting the disease would drop.

BUT, if I scare the little bugger off before it fills up and it finds another victim with some infected blood in it's body, then could it pass on the virus.  Worse yet, it the next victim swats the little bugger and the infect blood mixes with the blood of the next victim near the site of the bite, then could the disease be transmitted.

[doglover28]

Sorry about your breakup.

[Algernon]

I'm just hoping that the HCV kills the mosquitos.

Wishing EO well today.

[Dale_Ray]

We don't have the size misquitos down south that you have but this year has been a strange one for me. If they land on my arm I just sit there and laugh and let them have a good drink. I like watching them fly in a wabbling fashion and hitting walls and trees after having some or this stuff in there beeks. I guess its the riba but watching misquitos commit harry carry is about the most fun I have anymore. Dale

[DoubleDose]

That's the million dollar question as far as I am concerned.  If the virus is routinely recovered from saliva, gastric fluids, the glandular system, and often sexual fluids, then why can't it at least transmit to those FLUIDS in another person?  Maybe it does NOT ever reach the blood and become a full blown, detectable HCV infection...but...my question, still unanswered by science, is:  could the virus set up sub-clinical infections in isolated tissues, or fluid systems, within others who come in close contact fluid-to-fluid, and remain, as an undetectable, isolated infection within a body/ organ system.  Some prior research has hinted that this can happen (familial members of HCV infected persons showed CD-4 responses to HCV in various tissues, even though antibody negative, and PCR negative, from a previous study).

I think there has been almost no attention paid to other potential forms of infection, and their long term consequences, if they are present.

There is NO discussion of these issues in the current HCV medical community, other than various 'occult HCV' related issues, and studies on sexual transmission, which only really look at the blood, with antibody testing, to determine if there is transmission.  They do not seem to test the sexual fluids or tissues of the HCV negative partner for signs of infection!  Wonder why?

DoubleDose

[52TELE]

On the surface it doesn't make sense that the mosquito wouldn't be considered a potential HCV threat. I'm sure someone will come along in a few moments and let us know why its not.

[52TELE]

DD , looking through the archives this past weekend , your name came up several times on some REALLY old posts. I'm really sorry your still going through all of this.
My point is , these same questions , the same ones that get asked everyday here , were being asked a couple of years ago and there are still no answers.
Thats baffling .

[jmjm530]

Here's an interesting post on transmission that I found on Med Help. It's dated 1998.
http://www.medhelp.org/perl6/gastro/archive/2801.html

The point is made that the Hep C virus does not survive in mosquitoes but the author speculates that the *possiblity* may exist if the mosquito bites person "A" and then bites person "B" within a very short period of time. I wonder if some interfamilial transmission could occur this way in places with lots of mosquitoes , ticks or other blood sucking critters.

I imagine one way to test this out would be to have a mosquito bite a Hep C positive individual and then immediately induce the mosquito to bite someone Hep C negative. Ethical considerations would probably prevent this experiment in the same way as injecting blood from an SVR into a Hep C negative person to see if their could be viral transmission below the non-detectible limit. Someone posted earlier that Chimpanzees can get Hep C so maybe this is an avenue of research in regard to the transmission issue. Please no flames from animal right advocates, just some intellectual thought here :)

-- Jim

[jmjm530]

A little story about possible transmission routes. A few years ago I stepped bare foot on a nail sticking out of a public dock. Foot bled, blood on nail. Knowing that I had Hep C, I got a hammer, knocked out the nail and then washed the dock with some bleach. However, someone less responsible, perhaps not knowing they had Hep C, would just hobble away and tend to their own wound, which I did later. I have no doubt that had someone stepped on same nail within  a few minutes that they would have had at least some possiblity of catching the virus. Of course, how many people with Hep C step on nails that other people then step on within a short period of time? I guess it comes down to *likelihood* of transmission. Right now, the literature -- like the article above -- suggests what many medical authorities believe to be the most likely manner of transmission. Further research may find others and/or add more information to the topic.

[52TELE]

Freaking Chimpanzees ! Dope heads. I dont trust them.

[doglover28]

Grandoak,
I was wondering the same thing the other night.  Good question.


Ohgreat,
How did you biopsy go?

[GrandOak]

ROFLMAO,  I never watched them that closely after they bit me.  I'll have to pay more attention next time.  It sounds like fun watching the little blood suckers get their poetic justice.

Hmmm, now I'm wondering if a mosquitoe would experience RibaRage too.  Perhaps that's why they bash themselves into the wall <VBG>.

[jmjm530]

Yeah. If my date starts eating too many bananas I dump her right away :) No, didn't read the book but sounds fascinating, especially in light of the Bird Flu thing, not to mention Hep C. Medical/scientific non fiction can be a very good read, as can medical/scientific fiction as done by Michael Crighton for example. As much as I enjoyed Jurrasic Park, the movie, for me the book was a much more riveting experience.

-- Jim

[NYgirl]

I've always wondered it and really believe if it were possible to contract HepC and AIDS from mosquitos that the government certainly wouldn't tell us anyway...but it seems to me that if it were possible there would be WAY more people who had this disease who had none of the catch ways to get it.

[52TELE]

How would something as efficient as a mosquito  for blood transfer be any different than a hypodermic with residual blood? Or why would the nail mentioned earlier not be the same as the Hypodermic?

[sfbaygirl]

Hey, maybe those mosquitos have some cleaning apparatus that cleans their little stingers between bites? Wouldn't be the first time nature came up with something so clever!

[jmjm530]

For one thing, IV drug uses inject directly into a vein, which seems to be the most efficient means of transmission just like a transfusion.

Here's an interesting Q&A on mosquitoes which may suggest why transmission is possibly non-existent or very low.
Of interest is that only the female mosquitoes bite but that doesn't surprise a lot of us :) They also live longer than the males, again no surprise :)

More germane is that while they may bite more than once, it appears they have a "rest" period between bites where they digest/dissolve the blood prior to biting again which at least in the case of Aids makes it inactive in terms of transmission.

And as NY says, if transmission by mosquito was anything but a rare occurance, we'd probably have more cases of HCV. Same with Aids.

Here's the Q&A: http://www.mosquitobuzz.com/facts/mosquitopestcontrol.html
transmission as well.

[jmjm530]

On the other hand, this suggests it's theoretically possible:
http://tinyurl.com/qel3p
Seems opinions range from "no transmission" to "unproven or theoretically possible".

[GrandOak]

I agree with nygirl and revenire.  Simply look at the percentage of the population who may be infected with HCV and how widely John/Jane Q Public are informed of the disease.

I've encountered too many people who do not know, or infected people who are afraid to admit it because they fear the stigma that will be attached to them by the uniformed masses (of which I too was one).

I remember first seeing mandatory video's on HCV as part of my alcohol treatment program and thinking how scary it was that something could lay dormant for 10, 20, or more years. Also, how scared I was when I learned a few months later that, I was infected.  For myself, I figure it had to be nearly 30 years ago that I contracted it from IV usage since I have not had transfusions, transplantations, or any surgeries in my life.

[goldyn]

When i first found out I had hepc they set me up to talk to a hepc nurse, I was asking her about how it could be transmitted,and she said that hcv was going to be a full blown epidemic, thats when i asked her if it could be transmitted by mosquitos and she got real quit and just shook her head yes in silence......

I asked the same nurse well why didnt they test me when i was pregnant, and she said because the chances were so low that it could be passed on.

its funny every year im always the one to bitten my the mosq.,except this year i guess they dont like that tx smell.....