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Can Mosquitoes Spread HIV? What’s the Real Truth?

Because that's exactly what Kofuku is here for. Being both your myth buster and bringing you the weird ways bugs eat.
Yashika Sruthi
By
Yashika Sruthi
Can Mosquitoes Spread HIV? What’s the Real Truth?

Your friendly neighbourhood myth busters are here to once again to, well, bust a myth!

Today's guests are the flying killing machines themselves. No, we're not talking about Elon’s spaceship incident but Mosquitoes (how’s that for an anticlimax)! The single creature that can create so much ire by just existing. Apparently, being annoying is neither a crime nor grounds for extermination (we checked).

But wait, there's a rumor floating around that mosquitoes spread HIV.

With almost 30 lakh Indians infected just in 2022, you'd think we are less susceptible to rumors and fearmongering. But it's almost sadly false in the case of HIV, because of the sheer stigma and shame surrounding it.

Why are these blood-sucking insects actually hailed as the super spreader of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)?

Is it just a mass hate campaign against mosquitoes kindled on by wasps? Or is it actually justified? Or is it an attempt to cover tracks invented by humans who swore they did nothing wrong to contract the disease?

To know all that, you first need to know just how they drink your blood. Hint: it's very Count Dracula-esque.