Question: can a pregnat mosquito spread malaria

Jacquie Oliwa answered on 7 Jul 2017:

Hi there,
Mosquitoes do not get pregnant the way humans do, instead they lay eggs. And some species need blood from humans to form the eggs. It is while taking a blood meal that female anopheles mosquitoes are able to transmit Plasmodia, the protozoal parasites that cause malaria.

When the female anopheles mosquito takes a blood meal, she inserts her slender mouth part (called a ‘proboscis’) into a tiny cut she makes uses specialized slicing parts of her mouth. She probes until she finds a small surface blood vessel, from which she feeds. The proboscis contains two narrow tubes – one delivers her own saliva into the wound (containing chemicals to stop the blood coagulating as well as a slight pain-killer, to stop you feeling the bite) while the other sucks up blood.

The mosquito’s saliva also contains the malaria parasite (Plasmodium species); this is how the parasite is delivered into the human body. Similarly, the parasite passes back into the mosquito through the blood she ingests, once the human portion of the life cycle has been completed. As mosquitoes pass between human to human, and indeed also between other animals, they spread the malaria parasite through the delivery of saliva and the uptake of blood.

Malaria is not transmitted person to person. Although it is an infectious disease, it is not communicable in most instances to uninfected individuals. It is possible to transmit malaria through blood transfusions, to a fetus, or by organ donation.
Kind regards,
Jacquie