It might be the stuff of science fiction but there is a serious side for it can tell us a lot about how a genuine highly infectious condition might spread.

Two lectures at Manchester Metropolitain University, writing in the Conversation say  zombieism is interesting because, like rabies, its symptoms can include anxiety, agitation, paranoia and terror that alter the behaviour of the infected individual. So zombies will actively try to bite or eat their victims, thereby spreading the disease faster.

Joanna Verron and Matthew Crossly write that there are typically four response strategies to zombieism,

Firstly to quarantine the infected individuals, possibly with the hope of developing a cure or vaccine. 

While this can be successful, they say, the process of developing a cure is lengthy and difficult, and maintaining a perfect quarantine is difficult and risky.

Secondly for the uninfected to hide away, essentially isolating those who are healthy from those who are infected. 

Thirdly, a selective cull that involves attempting to remove the infected individuals from the population permanently is a tempting option. But this suffers from the same problems as quarantine, they argue, not only does it require efficient removal of the infected, there also needs to be some diagnostic screening process in hand so that early cases with fewer symptoms can be detected.

Finally, they write, “This leaves the scariest of the options: eradicate the infected area with a pre-emptive cull, with little to no concern for who, or what, is destroyed in the process. With heavy casualties but a guaranteed end to the infection, this is often the choice the “military” characters plump for in a zombie story. Assuming you could successfully eradicate all of the infected individuals, this might appear the best option. But moral issues remain regarding the heavy losses of uninfected individuals that would also take place.”

Don’t thought have sleepless nights, they conclude, for Real diseases are rarely as powerful as those in zombie films, which usually have a 100% transmission rate and come with a near complete lack of immunity, recovery or treatment

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