• Question: Could some diseases make a human look like and behave like a zombie, and if so, could there ever be a zombie apocalypse if there were outbreaks of these diseases?

    Asked by anon-181168 on 12 Jun 2018. This question was also asked by anon-181142.
    • Photo: Joanne Sharpe

      Joanne Sharpe answered on 12 Jun 2018:

      I don’t know about a zombie apocalypse, but there is an inherited prion (infectious proteins) disease called “fatal familial insomnia” that stops you from being able to sleep.. I guess that would make you like a zombie!

    • Photo: Claire Donald

      Claire Donald answered on 12 Jun 2018:

      There are parasites that can control the minds of their hosts and change their behaviour! Like the Zombie ant fungus that infects ants and causes them to walk away from safety and up to a high spot with lots of light and humidity where the fungus can grow. It forces the ant to secure itself with its month parts and then the ant dies. The fungus can then emerge from the dead ant (like Alien!) and rain its spores down to the ground to infect new ants.
      Or the Green- banded broodsac which is a parasitic worm that infects snails. The worm causes the eye stalks of the snail to look like pulsing, juicy caterpillars that look very tasty to birds. The snail is then forced by the worm too move to an exposed area where it can be seen and eaten by a bird. The worm needs to be eaten by the bird to complete its life cycle. And the cycle can repeat.
      Or toxoplasmosis which is a parasite that infects mice and rats. It causes the rodents to loose their fear of cats so they get eaten and allow the parasite to complete its life cycle in the cat.

      None of these examples are human but it shows its possible…..

    • Photo: Jason Chu

      Jason Chu answered on 12 Jun 2018:

      In the classical sense of zombies – brain-eating and the undead. No, I don’t think there is a disease out there for humans that is complex enough to do that.
      However, there are diseases that can affect insects in an interesting way. Viruses, bacteria, worms, and fungi exist to continue their life cycle and in order to do this, some have evolved to have the capacity to “control” it’s host to help spread the disease.
      For example – there’s a parasite called “spinochordodes tellinii” which when it infects grasshoppers and crickets, can cause them to jump into water and drown. This is so the parasite can leave the insect and travel in water.
      Another example is the Cordyceps fungus which can infect insects like ants. This causes ants to fall from trees (where they live) to the forest floor where they are “controlled” to stay in. The fungus then grow out of the ant and spores are released to help spread and continue to fungal life cycles.

      Fortunately for us, none of these diseases are complex enough to control human behaviour!

    • Photo: Alex Haragan

      Alex Haragan answered on 12 Jun 2018:

      Interesting examples given! Nature certainly does through up some fascinating (and sort of terrifying) things.
      >
      I will add that in terms of the dead coming back to “life”, or state of undead, this is categorically impossible for human bodies.
      There are many reasons for this – but my favourite example is that of muscle action. Without muscles you can’t move. Muscles require huge amount of energy to move – and with no living tissue to produce this energy, it isn’t plausible (I’d go into sliding filament theory etc but take my word for it – not possible).

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