Re: Is there a disease called vampirism and is it spread by a virus.

Dear Doug,



Thank you for directing your question on vampires to The MAD Scientist 
Network.  It took me a while to locate the source of the
information you wrote about, and in the end I don’t know if it is intended 
to be a hoax, a joke, or part of some other fictional story.  The
Federal Vampire and Zombie 
Agency is not a part of the Federal
government of the US, and has never been, as it pretends to be.  US 
government agencies have website addresses ending in .gov.  Website 
addresses
ending in .gov and .edu (given to addresses at schools and universities) 
are far more restricted than those ending in .com/.net/.org
or any other ending.  The articles that are present on their website are 
faked articles, and the locations of agencies, names of
people, and historical accounts all appear to be fictional.  Oddly, for a 
fictional site, there are no links to any “real” sites about
the authors, and the only hint (the copyright of Dango Productions at the 
bottom of their webpages) leads only to indirect
references to comic books.  Running a search on Hugo Pecos, the most 
commonly quoted person on the website, reveals no other
mentions of him on the Internet.  This would be impossible for any real 
person in his reported position.  



If a person truly wanted to explore the real-world occurrences of vampires 
(and zombies) they would find more fascinating things
than the fiction published by Dango Productions.  



Vampires, for instance, almost certainly existed.  The question then 
comes, what caused these vampires?  There are a number of
theories, of which I will describe the most common, which I have 
personally witnessed.  The most common theory is that the
vampires of folklore were people that suffered from a disease of the red 
blood cells called porphyria.  Current medical
knowledge of porphyria ensures that we no longer mistake those with the 
disease for monsters.  Before medical science was
advanced as it is today, however, those with the disease were sometimes 
treated horribly.  Having helped take care of a patient
with porphyria, I can understand how such mistakes could be made.  



Porphyria is actually a group of closely related diseases that are passed 
from parent to child.  Some cases are very mild while
some are very severe.  When patients with porphyria have an attack, their 
red blood cells break.  When a lot of red blood cells
break at once, they damage the tissues that they break in.  There are many 
different things that can trigger an attack in someone
with porphyria.  Because sunlight can aggravate the disease, most people 
with porphyria avoid sunlight (either by only coming
out at night or wearing sunscreen) and become pale.  If they don’t avoid 
the sun, these patients can develop painful sores all over
the exposed skin.  While my patient did not have the pale skin, receding 
gum line, and painful sores caused by exposure to sun
light that some do, he had another symptom that was probably most 
important in starting rumors of monsters.  



My patient suffered from mental disturbances caused by the red blood cells 
breaking down in his brain.  While mental
disturbances do not occur in every person with porphyria, it is not 
uncommon.  Specifically, the symptoms can be similar to
schizophrenia.  The man that I was helping to care for thought that he 
heard voices in his head that told him to do violent things. 
This man had a good understanding of his disease, and so did not act 
violent.  In fact, he was quite friendly.  However, if the
disease is advanced, then those that suffer from porphyria sometimes run 
into trouble with the law.  I could see how meeting
several very pale people acting in bizarre manners at night would inspire 
folklore in scared people without the understanding of
modern science. 



Another MAD Scientist, Nig
el
Botfield, wrote a letter that explains more about porphyria and 
provides a great link to additional information beyond that. 
Other people hypothesize that people suffering from catalepsy could have 
also been the inspiration for vampire folklore.  I found
only one person that believed that vampire folklore could have been caused 
by an infectious disease.  That disease is rabies. 
Infection with rabies causes a change in behavior in a different way than 
porphyria does, but it is probably the change in behavior
that is most important in starting legends as vivid as vampire stories.  
Perhaps it was this interview with Dr. Gomez-
Alonso that inspired the stories on the
website you read.



Because the fictional website you’d read also stated that zombies were 
caused by a virus, I must correct that also.  Again, the
truth is far more fascinating.  Zombies are a part of the Voodu religion 
(which is also spelled Hoodoo, and Voodoo) which is
practiced in Haiti.  Because the practices of this religion are partly 
secretive, little is known about how common people are turned
into zombies, or exactly how it is done.  The most popular theory (which 
does not necessarily make it the correct theory) is that
trouble makers are poisoned with a special potion that contains the toxin 
of the pufferfish.  The victim falls into a coma, is
believed to be dead, and then buried.  That night, the victim is unburied 
in secret and moved to a distant place, where he is kept
drugged for the rest of his life, acting as a slave.  Because you did not 
specifically ask about zombies, I won’t write anything more
about them, but if you want more information, I recommend looking at two 
papers, one written by Jak
ki Rowlette and other by Bob 
Corbett that reviews the scant
information available on the subject. 



Before we came to understand how porphyria and catalepsy worked, unknown 
numbers of people died from misunderstanding. 
However, we are not as enlightened as we could be.  The next time you see 
a person sitting on the street talking to a person that
isn’t there, think about your reaction.  Schizophrenia is a common, 
treatable disorder that most people are terrified by.  Those
that suffer from schizophrenia are more likely to kill themselves in 
depression than harm another person, but rumors and
sensationalized stories have been built up around schizophrenia being a 
violent, evil disorder .