I just killed a mosquito, which got me thinking about how I need to book an appointment at a travel clinic on Monday to get my malaria vaccine in Africa.

Malaria, like AIDS, is very common in Africa.

But wait! If malaria is spread by mosquitoes, how about AIDS?

This page explains why mosquitoes don’t (can’t) spread HIV. The short answer is the third bold sentence, which kind of amuses me: “Mosquitoes are not flying hypodermic needles.” (I get a crazy mental image.)

But I’m intrigued by the first one: mosquitoes digest the virus that causes AIDS.

Why not, then, isolate what causes that digestion, and deliver it in pill/injection form to people at risk for AIDS? (Besides the apparent side-effect of the vaccine also ‘digesting’ all of a person’s ‘blood meal,’ which I suppose is not desirable.)