# HIV infection from mosquitoes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 30, 2012, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-infection-from-mosquitoes/617291 "2012-03-30T15:45:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-infection-from-mosquitoes/617291/21 "2012-04-05T14:45:25Z")
So what? The children were infected after their parents contracted the disease. I’d rather not contemplate how… ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-infection-from-mosquitoes/617291/22 "2012-04-05T15:43:22Z")
> [@Zep\_Tepi](#): > > I had a friend whose mother was a nurse in a rural are in Northern Natal in the 1980s and she was convinced that the answer to your question is yes as she found whole families who were HIV including young children who were born before the parents contracted the disease. I’m curious to know how she determined when the parents contracted the disease… ---
**Author:** ![Saffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saffer/32/6440_2.png) [@Saffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saffer)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-infection-from-mosquitoes/617291/23 "2012-04-05T15:45:11Z")
which doctors in south africa have been known to tell their clients things like “if you have sex with a virgin, the AIDS will leave you and enter the virgin instead”. A baby being raped is not an uncommen thing to hear on the news. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-infection-from-mosquitoes/617291/24 "2012-04-05T15:45:47Z")
This is one of those questions where I’m never quite sure whether I’m getting a straight answer or a public service announcement. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-infection-from-mosquitoes/617291/25 "2012-04-07T10:25:30Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > This is one of those questions where I’m never quite sure whether I’m getting a straight answer or a public service announcement. Look at it mathematically: If it were possible to transmit AIDS via mosquitoes, AIDS would have been an epic pandemic in the Congo as early as 1959, and it certainly wouldn’t have stayed confined to the 4H Club (Homosexuals, Hemophiliacs, Heroin users, and Haitians) for as long as it did when it was first discovered in America. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-infection-from-mosquitoes/617291/26 "2012-04-09T08:01:39Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > If it were possible to transmit AIDS via mosquitoes, AIDS would have been an epic pandemic . . . If it were _possible_, you say? That sounds like a false dichotomy. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-infection-from-mosquitoes/617291/27 "2012-04-09T08:16:46Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > If it were _possible_, you say? That sounds like a false dichotomy. OK, poor choice of words; I meant “If it were _likely enough to worry about_”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hiv-infection-from-mosquitoes/617291.md?page=1)