Blood Transfusions

Rosiewolf · Post by **Rosiewolf** » Thu May 08, 2008 9:36 pm

What would happen if a werewolf were to give blood to a person (the human and the werewolf would have the same blood type of course)? Would the person become a werewolf? Or would the body, even though the blood is the same type, reject the blood, because there would be something different about the blood?

Berserker · Post by **Berserker** » Thu May 08, 2008 10:14 pm

If lycanthropy is some kind of infection, then yeah, the person would become a werewolf.

As long as the donor matches blood types, the body won't reject it. But if the blood type doesn't match, then hey, the recipient is a dead duck anyway.

Confidential · Post by **Confidential** » Thu May 08, 2008 11:01 pm

In my opinion, 100%

That is, if it infects the whole body. Then most bodily fluid will likely to contain lycanthropy. (blood, semen, saliva, etcetera...)

For blood rejection, hmm, Does werewolf has A/B antigen confusion too?

Terastas · Post by **Terastas** » Fri May 09, 2008 3:54 am

If lycanthropy can only be transmitted via one type of bodily fluid, that one fluid would have to be the blood.

It would still be debatable, however, taking into account the typical time frame between when blood is donated to when it is actually received. We had a thread not too long ago concerning mosquito bites, for example, where we first brought up the question of lycanthropy's lifepsan, that is, how long the viroid would survive outside of a host carrier.

In my own personal writing, for example, the lycanthropic viroid can only survive outside of normal human body temperature for a couple of minutes; it can spread from direct transmission from a living carrier, but not from exposure to a deceased carrier or an acquired sample (nobody's ever even identified the viroid, much less been able to study it, for exactly this reason: in the time it takes to get a blood sample out of a werewolf, onto a slide and under the microscope, the viroid is already dead). By that logic, unless it was a direct transfusion (which I don't think are ever done anyway), the lycanthropic viroids in a werewolf's blood donation wouldn't survive long enough to be donated.

EDIT: Come to think of it, if that were true, a werewolf could theoretically throw any suspicion off of himself by attending a blood drive. Thanks Rosie -- I wouldn't have even thought of that if it weren't for this thread.

Of course, that's just my own personal definition. Whether or not it could be contracted via donation would depend entirely on your interpretation of lycanthropy's shelf life. I mentioned in the mosquito bite thread I mentioned earlier that if it were possible to pass on lycanthropy that way, we'd probably see cases of lycanthropy spike the same way we do other viruses carried by mosquitoes like West Nile and Triple E; that's where I came up with my reasoning that lycanthropy's shelf life must be a short one.

Midnight · Post by **Midnight** » Fri May 09, 2008 4:13 am

Considering most of the stories that involve exchange of bodily fluids pay more attention to the bite, if I had to blame just one bodily fluid I'd blame the saliva.

Another problem with a blood transfusion as the vector for a werewolf infection... if there actually were werewolves about, and it was transmissible by blood, it would be another thing that was screened for. Even now there is an incredible paranoia (although paranoia probably isn't the right word; there has been a huge nationwide scandal about serious diseases having spread through blood transfusions) about bad things in donated blood. You have to answer a questionnaire about as long as the average School Cert. exam before you can donate a drop: what medication you've ever taken in the last few weeks (as I'd normally been on Disprin within a week of donating they flagged my blood as unsuitable for children); if you've lived in Britain in the 1980s, you're off the list for good; if you've ever had same-sex sex, you're off the list for good; and so on and so forth. And even after all that the blood gets screened. So any werewolf who went to give blood would probably get a bit of a "Houston, we have a problem" call from their doctor within a couple of days.

Terastas · Post by **Terastas** » Fri May 09, 2008 5:31 am

Midnight wrote:Considering most of the stories that involve exchange of bodily fluids pay more attention to the bite, if I had to blame just one bodily fluid I'd blame the saliva.

The problem with that is that, if lycanthropy was transmissible only through saliva, how does the infection spread throughout the body?

It was really early in the Pack's history, but I think ABrownrigg's answer was that shifting causes bleeding of the gums. Which makes sense if you think about it; you can get your gums to bleed just by brushing hard enough: imagine what having an entirely new set of teeth grow out of them would do.

Another problem with a blood transfusion as the vector for a werewolf infection... if there actually were werewolves about, and it was transmissible by blood, it would be another thing that was screened for.

If they actually did screen for it, that would assume that the public (or at least the secret government) is already in the know about lycanthropy and change the story greatly, but I imagine it would turn up during any other screenings blood donations are routinely subjected to.

So yeah, either no werewolf has ever donated blood in the history of blood donation, or the viroid has too short an expiration date for it to ever be identified.

Night_Hunter · Post by **Night_Hunter** » Fri May 09, 2008 6:58 am

yea

unless the only way to get the viroid is through biting. The werewolf produces some sort of venom with the mutagen in it. then the blood would be safe.

Blue-eyes in the dark · Fri May 09, 2008 10:26 am

now that just sounds silly, i'd laugh if i saw a wolf with venom spitting fangs......though i'd be happy to just see a wolf.^^

Aki · Post by **Aki** » Fri May 09, 2008 6:18 pm

An interesting thing of werewolves and blood that hasn't been brought up is one that's been shown in 28 Days LAter with it's "Rage" virus and in real life (a few rare times) with AIDs.

Transmission of the virus when blood comes into contact with something like the eyes. A blood falls into a survivor's eye in 28 Days Later and transforms them. And, in real life, a Correctional Officer (the new term for "prison guards") once told me of how he stopped a fight in a weight room and got blood in his eye and one of the inmates told him (the CO) that he (the inmate) had AIDs. Luckily after being tested, the CO wasn't infected - though there was a very real risk of it.

So if someone got in a fight with a werewolf, and got in close with something like a melee weapon they might end up infected if the lycanthrope's blood ended up in their eyes or something. Which makes melee combat with them even less advisable than it normally is, what with the big chompy teeth and slashing claws.

So bad blood donations are not the only vector for getting lycanthropy from blood rather an bite.

Celestialwolf · Post by **Celestialwolf** » Fri May 09, 2008 6:50 pm

During the bite, a virus-like substance secreted by a gland in the mouth is injected by their sharp fangs into the host's bloodstream, permanently altering their DNA to allow for at will shape-shifting (or simply “shifting” for short). Having completed its work, the virus then dies and is gradually broken down by the body leaving no traceable evidence in the blood. -(my site)

In my opinion, anyway. So no, the blood wouldn't infect people.

RedEye · Post by **RedEye** » Fri May 09, 2008 9:12 pm

This is up for grabs, depending on the brand and type of Werewolf you're talking about.
A "Cursed" werewolf might not transmit lycanthropy via blood donation because the "curse" is on the individual, not the parts thereof.
The jury is out on whether a "Classic" werewolf would transfer his/her ability, since the bite is supposed to be the major means of making other Werewolves. Maybe the blood would do it, maybe not.
Modern Werewolves, who get their Lycanthropy from a blood-born virus/viroid/symbiont; can easily pass their "special nature" to others by transfusion. Maybe there is even some sort of ritual involved in the "passing of the Blessing"...or maybe it's just a quick stab with the hypo and a kiss on the ear...

Irish Wolf · Post by **Irish Wolf** » Sat May 10, 2008 11:05 pm

Well in a book of werewolf stories one story is about a kid who had surgery and needed blood and the blood was a werewolf's so he became one but that story also says that you can become a werewolf from a bite. I kinda like the idea...'course if werewolves were real we would be up to our armpits with them if it were that easy.

RedEye · Post by **RedEye** » Sat May 10, 2008 11:11 pm

Irish Wolf wrote:Well in a book of werewolf stories one story is about a kid who had surgery and needed blood and the blood was a werewolf's so he became one but that story also says that you can become a werewolf from a bite. I kinda like the idea...'course if werewolves were real we would be up to our armpits with them if it were that easy.

Ahhh, yes. Up to one's armpits in Werewolves would be obvious, wouldn't it?
Unless they were well enough organized to keep you from finding out, right?

Irish Wolf · Post by **Irish Wolf** » Sat May 10, 2008 11:22 pm

I can imagine a secret service for werewolves
"For Werewolves, by Werewolves"

Terastas · Post by **Terastas** » Sun May 11, 2008 1:34 am

RedEye wrote:Ahhh, yes. Up to one's armpits in Werewolves would be obvious, wouldn't it?

*nods* That's why lycanthropy can't (realistically) be that easy to pass on. If it were, new cases would surface too often for it to go undetected for very long.

Unless they were well enough organized to keep you from finding out, right?

That's the other side of it. No matter how many werewolves there are in a pack, they'd still be greatly outnumbered by the uninfected human majority, so for a werewolf pack to survive, they'd have to remain undetected, and that would involve keeping tabs on any other werewolves that may be out there to keep them undetected by the populace at large as well.

Rosiewolf · Post by **Rosiewolf** » Sun May 11, 2008 11:04 am

Wouldn't the amount of blood also count? I can't recall what the amount is when people give blood donations at the moment. Well, if the werewolf gave to much blood, for one the werewolf would be dead, and two, I don't think the person could take all that blood. Unless they had a severe loss of blood.
And by the way, you're welcome Terastas.

RedEye · Post by **RedEye** » Mon May 12, 2008 5:40 pm

In most stories, the "hero" gets Werewolf blood spattered on him/her and that's all it takes. That's some strong blood there!

In Wulfen Blood, the transfusion amount required is one-half a unit of blood, about one cup's worth ( a Unit of blood is 500cc's volume or about a Pint. Half of that is a cup). Losing that much blood has no effect on anyone, unless you're already 'way down on your blood volume or are seriously anemic.

Or a guy who can't stand the sight of blood, especially when it's his own...

Scott Gardener · Post by **Scott Gardener** » Sat May 24, 2008 2:43 pm

Yep, my storyline, too. If you get transfused with contaminated blood, you'll be "on the mailing list" pretty quickly.

Once lycanthropy is discovered in my storyline, it's not hard at all to screen blood for it. However, someone newly exposed might have a day or two time window between having enough in the blood to infect someone else and having enough to show up in a test. It's a narrow time window, as the time between exposure and knowing that you're infected is about a week, as my lycanthropy doesn't wait for the next full moon; the first shift happens typically 8-11 days after the initial infection, and it's kind of hard not to notice that.