The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

A question that horror writers never address is why vampires never get any of the diseases/addictions that their victims have? If indeed vampires need to feed on the blood of their victims, surely during their centuries of culinary delights they must have imbibed the blood of a few victims with Hep. A,B, & C, AIDS, and numerous other diseases, as well as victims with any number of drugs or other mind altering substances in their blood. What is it about them that allows them to defy the laws of viral transmissions and substance interactions? Is it the same property of their blood that allows them to defy aging that also allows them to defy the microbial and checmical onslaughts of their victim's?

Well, Vampires are dead. A virus cant survive without living cells.

O.o Somebody say Vodka?

On a second thought though, I guess they could get bacterial infections. Bacteria love corpses. Hense the decompsition right?

Some how the vampiric condition staves off entropy.. and that is the ultimite dacay process. If a vampire lacks blood they go into a torpor, after a blood rage, that could be an instictual draw, (addiction)

With out blood wouldn't the corpse be come dehydrated?

Actually, vampires are undead. Not dead. If they were undead they wouldn't be moving around.

Also, to answer the question. Vampires are undead. Their blood is non-existent or, like zombies, coagulated and nonflowing. They're not technically living so virus won't survive in their bodies.

agree with last comment. If the blood is not living the disease will not be able to survive.

Aye, Katina said it. Vampires are dead! And being dead, an illness would do little to threatent them.

Yes but in vampire lore...once having fed, their bodies warm as the fresh blood flows thru their veins...so there must be some sort of circulation of fluids implied?

my own personal take on this was that whatever it was that made the vampire eternally young, beautiful and immortal also kept them from getting illnesses in general, which i assumed included anything they might catch from a victim (i mean, their whole species is dependent on feeding on blood, i would imagine some sort of natural defense from getting sick from this as well). however, i did always think that say if a victim were really drunk that the vampire might get a "secondhand" drunkenness off of their blood, even if it was a temporary one.
but you know, this is just what i assumed and not really backed up from a source or anything.

Yeah I have heard of the secondhand drunkeness...or a sort of contact buzz...if that is possible, there has to be some sort of fluid flow within a vampire...

whether or not the vampire has some sort of operating circulatory system (what witrh being dead and all) is pretty much determined by who wrote the story you are reading. i mean, yes a vampire is "undead", but let's face it, it has to eat blood in order to maintain a healthy existence, doesn't it? the fact that it must consume implies a working digestive system of some form. and as a previous poster in this thread pointed out, certain writers (re: Anne Rice) have noted that a vampire is cold, consumes fresh blood, and then gets warm, which means there is some kind of internal working which transfers eaten blood into their own circulatory system. i read a vampire comic once (the title escapes me at the moment, though I recall it was an independent and not Marvel or DC) which showed the anatomy of the vampires in this fictional universe as the esophagus leading straight to the heart. i'm not saying that this is how it "works" in all vampire fiction, but the idea struck me as interesting when i first read it.

If you remember the name of the comic, let me know, I wanna see if I can find it, it sounds interesting...

maybe they use the victims own blood pressure to pump into themselves? Like air into a balloon. :P

Being a vampire makes them immune to disease, they do not age, and usually are not killed or injured in the usual human manner, they have superhuman strength, and some are shapeshifters.....
That being said, even though they are reanimated corpses, they still need blood to survive, they are dependent on humans for their existance. Human blood is like O2 and nourishment to feed their otherwise perfevt bodies. Some get high from drugs in the blood, and some don't. Some are more efficient than others.

Katina you crack me up. Can't say anything really that hasn't been said , just in agreement

Well in most fiction vampires are the living dead. And being dead they can't contract illness, because they are already dead lol. How they manage to walk around mystifies me. Considering there blood would be coagulated, meaning clumped up and hardened....

In the movies vampires are dead and therefore will not be subject to disease. But also in horror movies it seems that diseases do not even exist for any character

If vampires were truly dead, they would not be up and moving around, their brains wouldn't work, they'd be in complete rigor mortis.


Since vampires, can use their brains, can move around, and aren't in complete rigor mortis, they're not dead. Undead.

DivineMissKat -


For your question

''Yes but in vampire lore...once having fed, their bodies warm as the fresh blood flows thru their veins...so there must be some sort of circulation of fluids implied?''


The blood is absorbed into the body helping it work. Obviously, it doesn't last long as vampires need to feed often. So, even if diseases could exist, they'd only exist one day or less before dying out thus not affecting the vampire much if at all.

Psychic Vampires can be negatively affected by feeding off of people on drugs and or ill with a disease.

like someone else said, a virus cannot survive in a dead body

yeah fictional vampires are the undead to they cant a virus wouldn't be able to survive the real question is humans that drink human blood they would be the only "vampires" who can actually get diseases

I would imagine that the plague years would have really put a dent in vampire ranks then.

I don't have any theories to add, but since it's still relevant...

A psy/sang vampire can actually feed on the high of someone who's on drugs. It's rather bizarre to experience, really.

I don't think vampires feel things we do the same way
because they are already dead
So the illness or drug high maybe not do much to them

I was under the impress that Vampires were able to tell that. form the books I read they could

Hmmm, very interesting topic.

I would have to say that yes I would think that it is the same thing that stops them from aging as stops them from becoming infested with diseases..

Although that would count out any "drunkeness" or other effects coming through via the blood of victims.

Maybe the blood is "stripped" of impurities once it first enters the vampire's body?

they are dead they are not effected by disease or addictions

First depends on the type of vampire, fictional, mythical or life style.
Fiction and myth are separated by area and abilities.
Life style… depends on species you are.

I have actually read a few books that address this issue. The basis is essentially the same across the board: the thing that makes a vampire a vampire also kills anything in the blood they feed from that could harm them.

I don't have the names of these books off the top of my head, but I'll make an attempt to locate them in the next few days.

its been portrayed that the thirst itself is an addiction whereas the virus thing rarely effects a once-turned vamp in literature. its more likely to be the cause of the vamperism (is that even a word; vamperism?)

XxNephthysxX -


About the blood being stripped I'd have to disagree with that partially.

For the 'fictional' [and that's where vampires only exist] any disease or virus from what I've read, is destroyed upon entering the body.


hottubmolly - I think you're looking for the word 'vampirism'.

This answer is pertaining to fictional vampires.

Pathogens, or pathogenic organisms, are responsible for the transmission of communicable diseases. They are generally bacteria, viruses and parasites, such as worms, amoebae or protozoa, that invade the body and cause illness by a variety of means that overwhelm the immune system and damage or destroy living tissue.

Viruses are tens or hundreds of times smaller than bacteria. They are not cellular, but consist of a core of genetic material surrounded by a protective coat of protein. Viruses are able to survive and reproduce only in the living cells of a host.

So, since vampires are not living hosts, they are not susceptible to most infections or diseases.

With regard to the affects of drugs and other substances on vampires (White Wolf):

Whatever mind-affecting substances are present in the blood of the mortal (alcohol, drugs, adrenaline) are passed on to the feeding vampire. This is, in fact, the only way that a vampire may become high, drunk or otherwise intoxicated.

References:

What are Pathogens?

Human Disease>

UnMasqued - General F.A.Q

The horror writers do not address it because it simply isn't appealing to its readers, not quite romantic enough for the Anne Rices of the world...

That's a total oxymoron. The undead are alive? the undead are the living so how does that work?

well vampyre is the name of dire, and diregrows along with immune so it digest that blood sickless. i do not fead on blood but my dire is space energy (cosmic energy) i gain it through my subconscious) some time my psych dire of aura which i fetch from sphere.

Well assuming the version of vampire you are referring to is what people consider "dead" then their bodily tissue isn't alive, it just simply exists in a physical form. when the blood is taken into the vampire's body, if it is diseased, that particular disease cannot effect the vampire's body because there is no living tissue for it to spread the disease through. A disease is only effective as long as its host is till alive...so if the vampire is "dead" then he/she is not affeccted by the blood they drink. **Again, assuming this is the version of vampire you are referring to, I do realize there are many versions.

Well, vampires are considered undead, so I think death is a desease powerful enough, don`t you think?

Didn't Louis save Clydia from the plague by turning her?

dabbler -


As I remember it, Louis bit Claudia and nearly killed her. However, Lestat and Louis found her in a hospital and saved her.

They are immortal. Living forever means no disease . May have there own sickness,like lack of blood. But dead they are to mortal weaknesses.

I don't think that vampires are effected by drugs or diseases...from what I understand and comments that have been made above...Vampires need to replenish the blood often enough that they cycle through it faster than anything could even have a chance to effect them.

Blood Magic can used against a Vampire. As per the White Wolf Genre.

I would imagine that the same powers that let a vampire heal quickly would deter any human blood diseases.