BLOODSUCKING flies common all over the world may have begun the HIV epidemic by spreading the virus from chimpanzees to humans. That’s the latest challenge to the established theory that game hunters became infected when HIV-laden chimpanzee blood got into open wounds.
Most bloodsucking insects pose no risk of passing on HIV. Mosquitoes, for example, inject saliva through one tube and suck up blood through another, so they don’t pass on blood-borne viruses.
But stable flies, Stomoxys calcitrans, could be an exception. They are known to transmit equine leukaemia virus between horses, and they also bite people. When feeding, they…
