OK, wouldn't Dracula get HIV or AIDS?

Holy Cow. You’ve way too much time to think about things. :-)
Would it not matter though, since well, he’s kinda dead.

That is a great question though. I’m soooo asking that at work tommorrow.

Dracula is already dead so what would it matter if he got the HIVvie?
Besides, he was around long before aids and hepatitus were a concern.

@osullivanbr: I’m actually reading Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” so that’s what made me think of it.
@Astro: I know he is dead, it is just a question

@Astro is right. Dracula is HIV-immune due to him being dead/undead. He would be able to cope with a bundle of diseases.

Technically speaking, he’s undead.
And it’s just an answer.

Look I know he is dead! But when he was ALIVE wouldn’t he have gotten HIV or AIDS?

Yes. Okay?
Of course if he were alive he wouldn’t be a vampire and thus he wouldn’t be drinking human blood. So, no.

So he would have? but he didn’t die from it

Because he was already DEAD!

Maybe that’s what killed him.

No he wasn’t. He was alive, but he could live forever unless stabbed or shot with a silver bullet…wait I just answered my own question

This has been strange.

yes but interesting

No way. It is well known that Dracula has the CCR5 32 base pair deletion that makes his white cells immune to HIV infection.

well it wasn’t known to me

Hang on now. How could he be alive and only be killed by a silver bullet. I want to meet his doctor. Miracle of medical science. He was undead, or dead, or something. He wasn’t alive anyway.

yes he was. but he was like magical or something. that’s why he could LIVE forever. but he could only be killed by a silver bullet or stake

When the good Count was made a vampire he became undead. The only way to “kill” him was a stake to the heart or decapitation (I didn’t know about a silver bullet). So AIDS, cancer, leprosy, heart desease, Restless Leg Syndrome wound have no effect on him because he isn’t “alive.”

Nvm. I actually answered my own question

Wow my head hurts right now…

I second everything that Astrochuck has said here.

just nvm! forget this question ever was here

Can you believe I’m off on Wikipedia looking up stuff for this question. I’m embarrassed for myself, I really am.

But Wikipedia says this so hah…

“The Dead Un-Dead was one of Stoker’s original titles for Dracula, and up until a few weeks before publication, the manuscript was titled simply The Un-Dead”

He shoots, He scores.

He shoots, and she doesn’t care! look just forget it. ok?

OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH.

not going to answer it’s a waste of time considering I answered my own question

You do know that Dracula is a FICTIONAL character, don’t you?

yes i do

Shakes head.. why do I bother?

Psst. Is it because it’s fun

@osullivanbr I knew I liked you!!!

aww shucks.

Wow, this is kinda like asking what a werewolf looks like if it’s shaved or if a zombie would be a good guest to invite to a tea party…

Dracula can’t get HIV or AIDS or anything because, what’s it going to do, kill him? He’s unaffected because the ways to “kill” him are already set. You kinda have to bend the word kill though because like everyone has said, Dracula is already dead!

That’s the beauty of it all. Fiction doesn’t have to make sense to be entertaining.

Who else is coming to this tea party Randy?

Would the werewolf use an electric shaver or a regualr one?

And does the zombie like herbal tea??

Things that make you say hmmm… lol!

@Randy. Since this thread is absurd on its face, I should add that there are many people who contract HIV but don’t develop or die from it. These so-called elite controllers not only don’t develop AIDS, but they are able to keep the virus level below detectable limits. A hot area of research indeed. If Dracula were real, he would probably be just like one of those patients.

Is this the werewolf in question?

Too funny osullivanbr !!

@Scamp, I think the werewolf would use clippers first and then use a razor because it would be such a big job and I’m sure if he decided to shave, he would want the closest shave possible. As for the zombie, I don’t think they would mind herbal. =) HAHAHA

@shilolo, seriously? That is awesome! I’m sure that would be Dracula.

@osullivanbr, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! YES!!!

I wonder if the zombie and the werewolf could have a tea party together. Some chamomille tea would be soothing to the zombie, and since the werewolf is stylin, he could learn some table manners and be quite the cool dude!!

When all else fails, Ehow.

Read bewarewolf’s insightful comment(s) at the bottom.

@Knotmyday Wow! Maybe we can hook these two up!!

Woah….

Well if the zombie and the werewolf are going to have a tea party I think they should invite Harry And maybe even the creature from the black lagoon.

Notice how I say people to just ignore this thread and that I already answered my question…but no one listens. That is hurtful

How can you ignore this thread, my friend? It is fantastic. Cool. Boss. Groovy. Impressive. Fabulous. Amazing. A real corker. Phenomenal!

Dare I say…Uberbatman, even!

@Mrs_Dr.; you must love the ruckus you raise with most of your questions. It happens each time you check it. I admit (privately) that I find you endearing and hope that you develop your sense of the absurd and wit to a higher purpose, like a short story or a stand-up comic.

maybe Dracula would end up just being a carrier of the virus.

What if the HIV virus was made up of 30% silver?

Or half silver and half holy water? Eek!

edit: “check in.”

I wonder if Dracula gets perturbed when he discovers his latest victim has been taking Plavex.

Plavex would be good for Dracula due to increased bleeding. Vampire bats use tissue plasminogen inhibitor (a clot buster) to feed, so, its not a stretch for Dracula to have that ability either.

I was thinking that it might make his snack too runny, like getting a bad milkshake.
Perhaps I should have said Coumadin?

Apparently, HIV doesn’t cause AIDS. Science Sold Out: Does HIV Really Cause AIDS
Let’s see where this goes. Shilolo?
My interest in this comes from a most rational friend that keeps sending me this questionable material. I’m not on the front lines of this battle

I wish I could remember what the book was, but I once read something where vampires did get sick if they fed from someone with a blood-borne disease. Which kind of makes sense. It’d be like food poisoning.

@Mac: and I bet that the book was a NYT best seller.

@Breedmitch. Scientists have been battling with HIV/AIDS deniers since its discovery 25 years ago. The most famous of these is Peter Duesberg, who claims that HIV/AIDS is not due to sexual, blood-borne or maternal transmission, but rather, by the large consumption of recreational drugs and subsequently by the first HIV drug, AZT. His “work” has been thoroughly discredited, owing in part to the proof of Koch’s postulates for HIV . The hardest to prove was postulate #3, but cases of health care workers who developed HIV after needlesticks helped prove that point.

I’m not familiar with the book you linked to, but a well written critique of it can be found here. I would add that most HIV regimens today are devoid of AZT, that many people with HIV are not drug users (i.e. in Africa, though, Duesberg argues that they are simply malnurished) and that a number of effective drugs are based on the biology of HIV (for example, protease inhibitors that prevent the maturation of the HIV virus, fusion inhibitors that prevent the joining of the HIV cell envelope with the host cell envelope, entry inhibitors such as maraviroc that prevent HIV cell entry and integrase inhibitors which prevent HIV DNA integration). The major advance in HIV treatment came in 1996 with the advent of HAART, a 3 drug regimen to treat HIV that included a protease inhibitor (or NNRTI) plus 2 reverse transcriptase inhibitors.

If your friend needs more information, I would be happy to provide it. Cheers.

Thanks, Doc. That’s what I wanted to hear. My friend is a sane, grounded, reasonable thinker, but somehow is caught up in what I consider to be this delusional topic. Every week she sends out some sort of new “evidence” that HIV and AIDS are not linked, or that scientists quit looking into the causality of AIDS as soon as they isolated HIV. At first I read them, but now I mostly just delete. I was afraid there might be something to it, but I trust your opinion, Doc.
The interwebs can be twisted to support any misguided opinions. People still vote Republican. ;)

In jest, you should offer your friend the opportunity to test her hypothesis… See how far she’ll go then…

Dracula would probably NOT get HIV or AIDS since he would also be consuming the blood of individuals being medicated for it.

But how come he doesn’t have blood type incompatibilities?

I just followed a link here, as it was nominated for best q of 08.

I scanned all the answers, and how has nobody mentioned that you can’t contract HIV through tasting blood? Unless Dracula had a lot of open sores in his mouth, he’s really at a much lower risk than if he were the receptive partner in unprotected sex, or if he shared needles.

@tonedef. Do not insert rational thought into this thread. It is inappropriate. :-)

Haha! And this, coming from Dr. shilolo, vampire MD! ;)

@tonedef—If I had teeth like that, I’d have a lot of open sores in my mouth…

my guess is that his hyper acidic stomach kills all such viruses

My guess is that if you were to measure Dracula’s blood chemistry, he would have a very high BUN

I just realized that, though Dracula was apparently unable to suffer from HIV, he would spread it to others…

Viruses need living cells to become a disease. I am not informed about the nature of undead cell function, but since they can be shot and stabbed without dying, and never seem to become fat by overindulging in blood, the cells are certainly not alive. I guess that, If the vampire goes from victim to victim, it’s possible that there could be a transfer of the virus from one to another; if a victim were to survive. But who knows. Magic works in mysterious ways. Maybe that is how vampires are created. I’ve seen Ultraviolet. I guess we need to make some clinical empirical tests to be sure.

Vampires yes, not Dracula though.