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The possibility of a “human vampire virus”
Hello all,
This topic comes from a place of legitimate curiosity. I was reading from a website called the FZVA about the “Human Vampire Virus” and so that is loosely what I’m basing this discussion on. First I want everyone to understand that I am aware that on this site there is a disclaimer stating that the site is meant for entertainment purposes only... I’m not attempting to discuss whether or not vampires exist but merely the possibility of creating the HVV virus and in essence “infecting” someone or yourself with it to cause the effects listed on the website or at least something similar. The page that I am referring to is here: http://fvza.org/vampires.html
I’ve seen discussions on here about using CRISPR to knock out the myostatin gene and I am wondering if this would be something similar to that? I’m very interested to see what you have to say!
Thanks!
Comments
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So, right up top, this type of stuff isn't in any way something I'm familiar with, but whenever people mention vampirism, the first thing that comes to my mind is rabies. The behavioral changes and infection from saliva to blood covers the major checkboxes.
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I’ve also considered rabies however those cases almost always lead to death. This is an excerpt from the site “explaining” what the virus is.
The Virus
HVV carrier:
vampire batHVV source:
the bat flea
Ischnopsyllus
elongatus
The source for this disease is the human vampirism virus (HVV). Like rabies, HVV has a distinct bullet shape and belongs to the order Mononegavirales—viruses with a nonsegmented, negative-stranded RNA genome. The virus' natural host is a flea commonly found on cave-dwelling bats, including the vampire bat. In the most common scenario, the flea bites a bat, which in-turn passes the virus on to humans and other mammals.
While most viruses are highly specific in what tissues they target, HVV is able to infect every living cell in the body, with the exception of red blood cells (which are replaced over time by the infected bone marrow). It's also much less destructive, as it can effectively transform tissues without causing cancer or necrosis.While in theory HVV infection is possible through any exchange of bodily fluids, transmission occurs through the bite of an infected person or animal in virtually every case. Thankfully, the virus isn't airborne, and waterborne transmission is highly improbable.
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I suppose if anyone is interested in a way to kill time and do a thought provoking thought experiment that’s what this is for. The FZVA website may be fictional however the creator certainly took his time in doing research. I’m mostly curious if it is possible.
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Oh man, you don't need any silly virus, just deprive me of food for long enough... I'll rapidly resort to vamprire-ish activities in order to feed.
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"... viral agent that rewrites the genome of every tissue."
If that kind of virus exists we wouldn't have so much limits with trying to manipulate genes in adults.
Also, retroviruses are positive-sense RNA viruses, not negative-sense.
It sounds very science-y but it's all bullocks.
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There are fictional vampires in the Blindsight/Echopraxia universe (By Peter Watts, highly recommended, especially for the sort of people on this forum). It has a scientific explanation for their repulsion by crucifixes, and the fact that we think they're a legend now.
The vampires are predators on humans. As predatory megafauna, they were naturally rare to begin with, and in order to outthink their prey, have extremely multi-threaded cognitive processing. Unfortunately, their visual processing is prone to a glitch where right angles filling enough of their visual field sets up an activity pattern that results in seizures. This wasn't a problem until humans developed architecture and started building stuff that was straight and angular, whereupon it became fatal.
Then some clever gene hackers figured out a way to re-create that genome. Things go downhill from there (although mostly not for vampire-related reasons).
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The only thing that I believe could be similar is the rabies but u could also say that rabies is simpler to a zombie virus. Have u ever seen a possum with rabies, well wen I had to kill one of those it took several shots from my grandmas 22lr riffle it would not die
