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My question today focuses on when the Zombie infecting agent becomes transmittable. There are many variations for study, but at the moment, I'm interested in the point an infected individual becomes a true transmitter.
It's believed that receiving a skin breaking bite from a Zombie will pass the infection with a 100% transmission rate. What happens, however, if an individual receives a bite, but from a subject that is in a pre-Zombie stage.
For example, let us say a male subject has received several bites from various Zombies. There is no doubt the victim is infected. There is discoloration and swelling of the skin, not only around the wounds but across the entire body. Organs are failing, and startling alterations have taken hold in the blood composition. The infecting agent is clearly running rampant.
At this point, however, the infected individual is not a true Zombie. The subject has not experienced full cardiac arrest and subsequent reanimation. In fact, the individual may remain somewhat cognizant of his surroundings, able to recognize family members, and even capable of limited speech. Still, the agent that will eventually reanimate him is prevalent throughout his body.
Let us say this infected subject in a pre-Zombie stage bites a nurse during a struggle with medical personnel. What is the probability of transmission to the nurse? Will the nurse simply die of infection but not reanimate? Is recovery perhaps possible for the nurse if certain antibiotics are administered? If transmission does occur, could the infecting agent be susceptible to certain mutations due to its early stage of development?
Remember, the more we understand about Zombies now, the greater our chances of surviving the coming epidemic.
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