I was doing some searching around on the web and I came across something that astounded me on Medscape’s website regarding vampirism. There seems to be a link between symptoms of vampirism and rabies. The following is the article direct from Medscape’s website.
A 25-year-old male complains of insomnia and nighttime wandering. He is hypersensitive to certain visual and olfactory stimuli, such as mirrors and garlic. Other than vampirism, what should be included in the differential diagnosis?
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Rabies. According to a report by Juan Gomez-Alonso, MD, in the September 1998 issue of Neurology, the rabies virus, which affects the brain through the peripheral nervous system, may provide an explanation for the vampire legend.
Gomez-Alonso asserts that many of the behaviors attributed to vampires are also exhibited by individuals with rabies. For example, while in legend vampires generally tend to be male, rabies is seven times more prevalent among men. Additionally, 25% of men infected with rabies have a tendency to bite others. Individuals with rabies are also hypersensitive to certain stimuli, such as light, mirrors, and strong odors, reacting with spasms of the facial and vocal muscles that can cause hoarse sounds, bared teeth, and frothing at the mouth of bloody fluid.
Other aspects of the vampire legend can also be explained by infection with the rabies virus. Men with rabies may develop insomnia and the tendency to wander, thus the vampire’s legendary nighttime searches for conquests; infected individuals become hypersexual because the virus affects the brain’s limbic system (which regulates emotions and behavior), and this can account for the aggression and biting aspects of the legend. The virus affects animals such as bats and wolves in the same way it affects humans; deaths from rabies can leave blood in a liquid state long after death, which may explain the lifelike appearance of the corpse after death, considered a definitive sign of vampirism.
A major epidemic of rabies in dogs and wolves was recorded in Hungary around 1721-28, a time and place where the legend of the “modern” vampire began. While others have tried to attribute “vampirism” to schizophrenic episodes, misinterpretation of the appearance of corpses, or superstition, Gomez-Alonso points out that the link with rabies is the most likely explanation, especially in light of the coincidence in time and the similar presentations associated with the two “conditions.”
Source: Gomez-Alonso J: Rabies: A Possible Explanation for the Vampire Legend. Neurology 51: 856-859, 1998.