Can mosquitoes transmit coronavirus?
There have been over hundreds of millions of cases of severe illness and over half a million deaths each year caused by the pathogens that mosquitoes spread by sucking our blood.
However, to confirm if mosquitoes are transmitting the virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, we still do not have any scientific evidence.
It is highly unlikely that a mosquito will pick up the virus by biting an infected person, let alone be able to pass it based on the current understandings, though there is much more to learn about the coronavirus still.
Can other viruses transmit via mosquitoes?
Yes, other viruses can be transmitted by mosquitoes.
For the female mosquitoes to help develop their eggs, they need the nutrition contained in the blood. Taking advantage of this biological requirement, viruses move from host to host.
Mosquitoes first need to bite an infected person or an infected animal, such as a bird or a kangaroo, for a mosquito to become infected.
A number of viruses, including the Zika virus, chikungunya, River virus, yellow fever, and dengue, can be transmitted by mosquitoes. Malaria, which is caused by a parasite, can also be transmitted through mosquitoes.
However, there are many
other diseases that they cannot transmit, including Ebola and HIV.Mosquitoes themselves do not get infected by HIV. Due to the low concentrations of HIV circulating in their blood, it is unlikely a mosquito will pick up the virus when it bites an infected person.
Ebola does not infect mosquitoes, even when scientists inject the virus into mosquitoes. During an Ebola outbreak, one study collected tens of thousands of insects but found no virus.
Can the novel coronavirus infect mosquitoes?
COVID-19 spreads via droplets when infected people cough or sneeze, or by touching surfaces that are contaminated by the virus.
However, there is no evidence that coronavirus can spread via mosquitoes even though coronavirus has been found in blood samples from infected people.
There is no evidence that the virus would be able to infect the mosquito itself even if the mosquito did pick up a high enough dose of the virus in a blood meal.
Mosquitoes won’t be able to transmit it to the next person it bites if the mosquito itself is not infected.
Why only some viruses?
The virus quickly ends up in the gut of the insect when a mosquito bites and sucks up some virus-containing blood. From the gut, the virus needs to infect the cells lining the gut and to infect the rest of the mosquito’s body, the virus must escape from there in order to spread to the head, wings and to the legs. Before the virus is being passed on by the mosquito when it bites next, the virus has to infect the salivary glands first. This process can take over a week to a few days.
The barrier to this is not just the time. The virus as to manage to get out of the gut and has to get through the body and then into the saliva finally. For the virus, each of the steps in the process can be an impassable barrier.
The virus is most likely to perish in the gut or be excreted. For the viruses that have adapted to this process, it might be effortless for them but, not for other new viruses.
Hence with no evidence, there is no need to worry about coronavirus transmission via mosquitoes.
Source
Can mosquitoes transmit coronavirus
