If the genetic code of the rabies virus experienced enough changes, or mutations, its incubation time could be reduced dramatically, scientists say. Once rabies sets in, though, it's fatal within a week if left untreated. Unlike movie zombies, which become reanimated almost immediately after infection, the first signs a human has rabies-such as anxiety, confusion, hallucinations, and paralysis-don't typically appear for ten days to a year, as the virus incubates inside the body. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society, which part-owns the National Geographic Channel.)įor instance, rabies-a viral disease that infects the central nervous system-can drive people to be violently mad, according to Samita Andreansky, a virologist at the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine in Florida who also appears in the documentary.Ĭombine rabies with the ability of a flu virus to spread quickly through the air, and you might have the makings of a zombie apocalypse. Though dead humans can't come back to life, certain viruses can induce such aggressive, zombie-like behavior, scientists say in the new National Geographic Channel documentary The Truth Behind Zombies, premiering Saturday at 10 p.m.
In the zombie flicks 28 Days Later and I Am Legend, an unstoppable viral plague sweeps across humanity, transforming people into mindless monsters with cannibalistic tendencies.
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