Tuesday, January 1, 2008

'Splain This to Me.

Sorry, but something here doesn't add up for me. I am not an immunologist and I didn't sleep at a Holiday Inn Express lastnight, but this type of relational relativism stuff strikes me as... erm, odd.

Bedbugs in NY

"Bedbugs come out... at night to feed on human blood, biting people in their sleep and leaving large, itchy skin welts that can be painful. They are not believed to carry or transmit diseases." [empahisis Root]

Mosquitos on Wikipedia

"...mosquitos suck blood from other animals, which has made them the most deadly... killing millions of people over thousands of years and continuing to kill millions per year by the spread of diseases."

"Prior to sucking the blood, they inject a mild painkiller, which numbs the host to the pain from the 'bite'." [empahisis Root]

The female mosquito that bites an infected person and then bites an uninfected person might leave traces of virus or parasite from the infected person's blood. The infected blood is injected through, or on, the "dirty" proboscis into the uninfected person's blood and the disease is thus spread from person to person. When a mosquito bites, she also injects saliva and anti-coagulants into the blood which may also contain disease-causing viruses or other parasites. [empahisis Root]

Transmission via Bodily Fluids

"This transmission route is particularly relevant to intravenous drug users, hemophiliacs and recipients of blood transfusions and blood products. Sharing and reusing syringes contaminated with HIV-infected blood represents a major risk for infection with not only HIV, but also hepatitis B and hepatitis C. Needle sharing is the cause of one third of all new HIV-infections and 50% of hepatitis C infections in North America, China, and Eastern Europe."

"The risk of HIV transmission from exposure to saliva is considerably smaller than the risk from exposure to semen" - Wikipedia