Already infected? (SPOILER ALERT)

[Feather Kana]

Okay, can someone tell me....iffen I missed it....

if everyone is "already infected" and all they had to do to kick that dormant virus in them into high gear is die, then how come a single bite also will make you die and reanimate as a zombie?

I mean,

if it's already in your system, how the heck is a bite going to make any difference?

EDIT: I'm new to this particular forum and altered the first post to comply with spoiler rules as I saw afterwards.

[PyramidHead SHD]

The infection enters their blood stream and contaminates it.
Usually the body has to be dead for it to become infected from the virus.

[Michonne]

A bite introduces more of the virus into your bloodstream from an outside source. You're getting even sicker.

HOWEVER. It's also evident, in the case of Herschel, that you CAN minimize and/or isolate the damage if the bitten area is removed quickly enough. Herschel was bitten in the leg. The leg was removed, and he recovered without becoming ill enough to die and reanimate.

[Nekoei]

The virus that reanimates a dead person's body is in the air. Every living person is infected. So, no matter how they die, they will become a walker. Unless, of course, they are decapitated or shot in the brain.

A bite from a walker does not "introduce more of the virus into your system". If you're infected, then you're infected.

What Rick and the crew don't know is that the human mouth is filthy enough when the person is living. A wound from a human bite can cause a wicked infection and make you very, very sick.

Now, imagine getting bitten by a walker that has a rotten, yuck mouth. There's all kinds of deadly viruses in there to kill you.

So, in a sense, the bite from a walker does contribute to your death. Just not in the way everyone is thinking.

I hope this helped.

[Feather Kana]

Okay I seriously doubt that every single person who got randomly bit died of a serious secondary disease fast enough for them to just die and become a walker from the other virus in their system.

The point is that if you're bit, you still turn, even though the virus is already in your system from airborne.

I considered that maybe the bite putting an active form of the virus in the bloodstream makes the rest of the virus become active as well. But that doesn't fully go in line with biology either....

Or, again, a bite from a person with an active form of the virus will make the person turn anyways, even if their own current infection is dormant. If they die, their immune system isn't exactly holding it off any longer and they turn anyways because their dormant virus is now active with nothing to stop it.

Or maybe I'm just barking.

This thread started because I was picking across points that seperated this virus from Solanum (from World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide).

[Darius D -deceased-]

Thank you for asking this question!

I've always just accepted that you get bit, you turn.

But now your making me thing about it...

Didn't they say too if you've gotten bitten OR scratched by a zombie you get sicker then die, then turn?

Maybe it like... resides in the nerveous system and once it gets into the blood stream via an open wound it sickens you. After you die from it the virus in your neveous system then reactivates your brain to be a biter.

Or mabye its two different KINDS of viruses!

The one that is airborne and if you die you are reanimated as a zombie and the byproduct version of the virus that occurs within an already reanimated body.

The airborne one affecting only the nerveous system and the other, the whole body.

[Yukino Makoto-kun]

It's like this: everyone is infected, no matter what. You can die of anything, getting your neck snapped, a cold, getting shot, whatever, and you will come back as a walker unless you have some sort of head trauma/bullet to the brain after you die. This is seen in the packed highway, where there were people who were dead at the wheels of their cars, but hadn't turned. They'd been in car crashes and took a head blow that killed them.

However, being bitten or scratched by a walker hastens your death. It's assumed from what we've been told that it's something like rabies. You get bit, you develop an extremely high fever and eventually die. Then you come back. Morgan tells us this is what happened to his wife, and we see it happening to Jim. So it's not really the "walker infection" that kills you. The walker infection only brings you back after you die. But being bitten makes you die faster.

[ChiiDoLLx]

Yukino Makoto-kun

♛☆★ ם ѳ ʟ ʟ ★☆✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦
tab ↻ ωhimsical ℬrothel ↺


I'm so glad you brought up the packed highway place!
I was confused to see so many "dead" people that weren't walker
considering that they were supposed to be inanimate upon after death.

Does this mean the whole world is technically doomed of becoming a walker eventually?

[Darque Machina]

everyone is already infected, as everyone else has already said.

you don't get infected by a bite from a walker but it will kill you... i imagine from blood poisoning or something from all the nasty bacteria and what not

and yes blood poisoning(septicemia) will kill you pretty quickly

[Yukino Makoto-kun]

II Little China DoLL II

Yukino Makoto-kun

♛☆★ ם ѳ ʟ ʟ ★☆✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦
tab ↻ ωhimsical ℬrothel ↺


I'm so glad you brought up the packed highway place!
I was confused to see so many "dead" people that weren't walker
considering that they were supposed to be inanimate upon after death.

Does this mean the whole world is technically doomed of becoming a walker eventually?

Not necessarily doomed. You really just have to take care of your dead people properly. If someone dies of sickness or old age, as long as you shoot them in the head, they won't turn. 3nodding

The only problem is that most of the world's population is already dead/walkers. I imagine if you could find a safe, remote place, you'd be fine and could breed up the next generation. Walkers decompose and "starve" after all, even if it takes awhile to do so.

[Feather Kana]

Yeah. Don't spam my threads, please.

[Dark_Pinoy]

I assume that the virus needs something to activate it. It's dwelling in your system and it either needs you to die or to be bitten to activate the virus thus starting the process of you transforming into a zombie.

[psyst3m]

Nekoei

The virus that reanimates a dead person's body is in the air. Every living person is infected. So, no matter how they die, they will become a walker. Unless, of course, they are decapitated or shot in the brain.

A bite from a walker does not "introduce more of the virus into your system". If you're infected, then you're infected.

What Rick and the crew don't know is that the human mouth is filthy enough when the person is living. A wound from a human bite can cause a wicked infection and make you very, very sick.

Now, imagine getting bitten by a walker that has a rotten, yuck mouth. There's all kinds of deadly viruses in there to kill you.

So, in a sense, the bite from a walker does contribute to your death. Just not in the way everyone is thinking.

I hope this helped.

Great post exclaim

[iSaibot]

Basically, the virus doesn't get activated until A) the person dies or B) active virus is introduced in to their system. Once it activates, the person quickly dies and turns.