Can Mosquitoes Carry COVID-19?
Now that the weather is warming up and many people will be expanding their stay-at-home order to their backyards, I woke up this morning with the question: Can mosquitoes actually carry COVID-19?
I immediately jumped out of bed and Googled the question…
If a mosquito bites an infected person with COVID-19, and then lands on an uninfected person, can the disease be transferred?
Hol' up can mosquitos carry/ pass covid-19 ( Corona virus) ? pic.twitter.com/LIdiZURopw
— HEAT NATION (@Zachppp) March 15, 2020
Getting right to the point, here’s what I found…
In early March, the World Health Organization (WHO) said there has been no information nor evidence to suggest that COVID-19 can be transmitted by mosquitoes.
Here’s the breakdown…
“There are no reports of any spread of coronavirus to humans by mosquitoes,” Dr. Mary Schmidt, infectious disease and internal medicine specialist, told Fox News. “If this was a route of transmission, we would have seen it in the Middle East, where the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) caused by the coronavirus has been present for 6 years.”
Schmidt referenced a study that revealed that if mosquitoes were fed a blood meal of the coronavirus MERS, it was detected for up to one day in the insect. However, for this to become a threat to humans, a series of particular events would need to occur.
“In order for this to happen in real life, the mosquitoes would have to acquire the virus during feeding, the virus then undergoes replication in the gut tissue, disseminates to the secondary sites of replication, including the salivary glands, and is ultimately released into the arthropod’s salivary secretions, where it may be inoculated into the skin and cutaneous vasculature of the host (human) during subsequent feeding,” Schmidt said.
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— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) May 2, 2020
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Now, I AM NOT A MEDICAL EXPERT NOR AM I CLAIMING IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR COVID-19 TO BE TRANSMITTED THROUGH MOSQUITOES. I am simply raising awareness of the question and sharing data that I found through sources.
Regardless of the medical findings, I don’t trust mosquitos, not will I ever, so, I will be taking all the regular precautions… bug spray, citronella candles, voodoo hexes (kidding/not kidding), etc…
Stay home, stay safe! Tracy Marie
