§ Mr. PawseyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what information she has as to research into the spreading of AIDS through insect bites.
§ Mr. SackvilleThe possibility that biting insects could be involved in the transmission of HIV has been raised many times in the past. The evidence from epidemiology and knowledge of the ways in which insects bite and transmit other infectious agents indicate that insects play no part in this process.
Epidemiological studies in Africa and in the United States have investigated the hypothesis that HIV is spread by insects and found no evidence to support it. In addition, there is no evidence that hepatitis B, which has similar epidemiological features to HIV, can be transmitted by mosquitoes.
Laboratory experiments have been unable to demonstrate replication of HIV in bed bugs or mosquitoes. Thus biological transmission, where the virus multiplies in the insect and is injected into a person when bitten, would not be possible. The possibility of mechanical transmission, by which the insect transfers fresh blood directly from one person to another when interrupted during feeding, is thought to be remote because the proboscis or mouth of the insect would not hold sufficient blood to provide an infectious dose of virus.