Good Morning Jim, interesting that you mentioned Lake Okeechobee, Belle Glade Florida (right on the Lake) has the regrettable distinction of having one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS infection anywhere in the State, going back decades, and of COURSE it could not possibly have anything to do with the massive mosquito population, I mean, just because a pesky little insect which bites, pierces the skin, draws in blood into it’s insidious proboscis, and then bites ANOTHER victim the same way, it’s just not possible that AIDS could have been spread that way, why?
Because the government told them so. Told them it was ‘impossible’.
So all the government needs to do in this case is to announce that it is “impossible” for the ZIKA virus to be transmitted by mosquitoes, and viola!
Problem solved! ;)
Actually, the evidence against mosquito-borne HIV is pretty strong.
The age distribution of AIDS in West Africa and Haiti is an inverted parabola, high at birth, falling (due to mortality) to age 3-4, almost zero ages 5-12, starts to rise again age 12 with very high levels by ages 15-16.
Malaria (and dengue, which is a Zika cousin) rises in a linear fashion from birth to old age.
I followed the early Belle Glade story very closely, for exactly the reasons you suggest. African sexual behavior patterns, it turns out, are the whole story - in Guinea, in Haiti, in Belle Glade and now in lots of US cities.