Transmission of the Disease

[Severus Snape]

I was reading the "Zombies are here" thread, and Laux's response about how he'd rather have an aluminum baseball bat instead of a halberd (which I completely agree with) put a thought in my head about how the disease is transmitted. And that triggered a whole slew of thoughts on how one turns into a zombie, and then hence this thread.

Zombification happens when someone is bitten by a zombie, correct? And it is generally assumed that this is due to something in the saliva and other bodily fluids that is transferred during the bite. And this is all fine and dandy, and everyone assumes that so long as they aren't bitten, they are pretty safe from becoming the next walking corpse. Which I happen to disagree with. Why?

Say you go out zombie hunting with your baseball bat, or sword, or some other object designed to smash the head and brain. You find a group of them, and then do the deed. Bravo to you, and you may end up getting zombie kill of the week. But take a look at your bat, or sword, or hammer. Notice anything different about it? No? You should. It's covered in blood. And blood is a bodily fluid.

Now take a look at yourself. Did you get any of zed's blood on you? You probably did. Now think - when you were slugging away, swinging for the fences like Babe Ruth in the World Series, were you wearing goggles, headphones, a gas mask, and other coverings to keep every hole in your body covered up? Or were you yelling and screaming, flailing wildly and counting out the number of zombies you downed? My guess is the latter, although some people would be quite prepared as in the first option.

Ok, so say you were yelling and screaming, having a good old hillbilly time. What are the odds you were able to keep any blood from spewing into your mouth, eyes, ears, and nose? Probably not very good. And if you got some blood or other fluids from zed in you, then you are probably doomed to become the thing you just destroyed.

So what does this mean? That killing zombies in hand to hand combat is dangerous not because zed can kill you where you stand, but because you can actually become zed well after the battle is over.

Just my thought on the subject. Anybody else have thoughts on this?

[Gamer]

That is the normal movie zombie and the zombie in the Zombie survival guide, which makes the proscribed bludgeon the zombie in the head tactic a very stupid idea against those types of zombies and why I lothe the survival guide.
But that is absolutely not how the Dead Reign zombie 'disease' works.
Dead Reign zombies have to kill you and take all of your p.p.e. in order for you to become a zombie.
There is no fluid transmission zombie infection in this game, so using what ever bludgeon instrument in this game is still a very viable tactic.

[azazel1024]

Yup, in Dead Reign the zombie has to specifically kill you (or you die from an infected bite). You could get zombie blood all over you, in your mouth, etc and not get 'infected'.

As for a traditional zombie movie and classic conceptions of them, I'd think transmission would be on the order of something like HIV/AIDs to possibly as virulent as Ebola/Marburg viruses.

On the one end it nearly takes direct blood to blood contact (or a bite). Getting a little blood on you is probably not going to spread it, maybe not even getting a little in your mouth or eyes (limited immune response). Something like Ebola is basically the same, except more virulent where relatively little transmission is needed to pass it, however not airborne per say.

One thing to keep in mind, zombies don't have ciruclatory systems and any open cuts/wounds would have caused a fair amount of their blood to have drained out, though certainly not all with no circulation (and in the case of someone killed by a zombie, they might have lost of a lot of their blood before turning in to a zombie), so there would be a lot less blood from bludgeoning a zombie or slicing and dicing than you'd see from a living breathing human. You'd still probably see some spatter, etc, but it would be a lot less.

No circulation and likely lower blood volume.
-Matt

[Severus Snape]

Yup, in Dead Reign the zombie has to specifically kill you (or you die from an infected bite). You could get zombie blood all over you, in your mouth, etc and not get 'infected'.

As for a traditional zombie movie and classic conceptions of them, I'd think transmission would be on the order of something like HIV/AIDs to possibly as virulent as Ebola/Marburg viruses.

On the one end it nearly takes direct blood to blood contact (or a bite). Getting a little blood on you is probably not going to spread it, maybe not even getting a little in your mouth or eyes (limited immune response). Something like Ebola is basically the same, except more virulent where relatively little transmission is needed to pass it, however not airborne per say.

One thing to keep in mind, zombies don't have ciruclatory systems and any open cuts/wounds would have caused a fair amount of their blood to have drained out, though certainly not all with no circulation (and in the case of someone killed by a zombie, they might have lost of a lot of their blood before turning in to a zombie), so there would be a lot less blood from bludgeoning a zombie or slicing and dicing than you'd see from a living breathing human. You'd still probably see some spatter, etc, but it would be a lot less.

No circulation and likely lower blood volume.
-Matt

Doesn't the bolded part acknowledget that what I'm saying is correct? If you can die from being bitten, and then you rise as a zombie from said bite, then it goes to figure that there is fluid transmission of some kind causing you to become infected. So wouldn't the same then hold true for fluid transmission via blood?

I get that the zombies in DR feed on PPE. I get that is normally how people in DR die, and then they become zombies due to having been fed on by zombies. But there still has to be a reason why they become zombies, and the bolded part above (in your own words) shows that people come back as zombies due to being bitten. Hence, fluid transmission.

[Gamer]

NO that is completely incorrect for the DR game.
The DR book page 30 last sentence in The Myth That Won't Die, the zombie bite myth section:

Note: Should a bite victim later die of his wound or infection, he does NOT return as the walking dead.

You can die from a zombie bite infection but you will not become a zombie.

[Epically]

NO that is completely incorrect for the DR game.
The DR book page 30 last sentence in The Myth That Won't Die, the zombie bite myth section:

Note: Should a bite victim later die of his wound or infection, he does NOT return as the walking dead.

You can die from a zombie bite infection but you will not become a zombie.

I recon that's crap. The infection came from the zombie bite didn't it? I also believe there is an infection called 'Zombie rot', which is one stage after gang green. Whereas if you properly take care of the bite ie; constant new bandages, antisceptic, etc, you'll be fine.

[Gamer]

And that has anything to do with the topic of turning into a zombie from a bite how?

[Teltum]

Good evening to you all,

Any way, here is the deal. I vote immunity. No I mean really. If you've made it this far in the plague it is a great probability that you are in fact immune to the "virus." However, my next thoughts on this train are that in the last moments of life the immune system is so "shocked" that the virus can take hold and turn the victim.

Immunity favors the bold and the people in need of saving.

(Could be a cool idea for "Retro Savages" and their isolation immunity)

As Kev has signed in a number of my books "Let your imagination soar!" This is one of those times.

[Beatmeclever]

NO that is completely incorrect for the DR game.
The DR book page 30 last sentence in The Myth That Won't Die, the zombie bite myth section:

Note: Should a bite victim later die of his wound or infection, he does NOT return as the walking dead.

You can die from a zombie bite infection but you will not become a zombie.

Just to reinforce this: This section that is talked about above explains that if you are bitten and not killed you have still been bitten by a dead thing that is probably dirty and carrying other diseases. The bite of a zed might not kill you, but your bite is likely to become infected. This infection is NOT the "zombie virus" it is an infection of an open wound. If you die from THIS infection, you are not going to stand up later and eat your buddies.

This is PPE-based zombification NOT viral-based!

Strip naked, grab your favorite cat-o-nine tails and machete, hack and flail away all day on the horde you attract, later bathe in the bloody goo and entrails of your foes, get a spoon and ladle this syrup on a scoop of vanilla ice cream, you will not become a zed. Have one zed eat of your flesh until you die - welcome to the unlife of the undead.

[azazel1024]

Hmm, I had thought it did say if you died from the infection you turned. Welp, whatever.

If we looked at this from the classic zombie infection stand point though, blood splatter would probably be pretty low on a several week old zombie (let alone several month old).

Course I'd still want to wear some kind of respirator mask and safety googles around them, you know, if I wasn't sniping them from a distance, and then take a bleach bath afterwards.
-Matt

[azazel1024]

Hmm, I had thought it did say if you died from the infection you turned. Welp, whatever.

If we looked at this from the classic zombie infection stand point though, blood splatter would probably be pretty low on a several week old zombie (let alone several month old).

Course I'd still want to wear some kind of respirator mask and safety googles around them, you know, if I wasn't sniping them from a distance, and then take a bleach bath afterwards.
-Matt

Yeah, I don't like getting other people's blood in my mouth in the first place.. let alone a zombie's blood, regardless if it carries disease or not.

Funny, week old rotting blood normally doesn't bother me. Its the fresh stuff that I don't like the taste of
-Matt

[gaby]

if someone, killed them selves before the Zombie can kill them,they do not turn into one Right?

What is the range a Zombie need to be to get the Ppe if a person killed them self or do they need physical contact?

What about Vampires?

[The Beast]

What about Vampires?

What about them?

[Tadrith]

The way I'm running it in my game is that it is a magically created virus. The zed virus is what makes you a zombie but it can't survive in the human body for more that an hour or so before it's killed by the immune system. You will turn if a zombie bites you and you die but only if you die within that hour. Also because the virus is magical it only requires contact with the zombie too infect you not just biting.