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Since we're now dealing with the threat of the west nile virus out here in California, it got me to thinking.... can a person become a werewolf through a second hand bite? i.e. mosquitos, fleas etc.

What about a blood transfusion?


Since everyone who you ever see becoming a werewolf in the movies are usually of a thin or average build, what would happened if a really fat person were to be bit? When I say fat, I mean morbidly obese (several hundred pounds overweight). Would lycanthropy alter their metabolism so they would slim down, or would they just remain fat? Somehow, I just can't imagine a fat werewolf waddling around.

Well, I'm assuming werewolves have a pretty wicked matabolism, it'd probably burn through the fat reserves of the "morbidly" obese within a few months.... Assuming of course that they survived the werewolf attack and the subsequent transformations.

Blood transfusion and mosquito bites? Depends what sort of transformation you're aiming for, virus based, magic, saliva triggered, whatever. If it's magic then there's no reason for it to spread like a virus would.

The fat may end up getting used as energy during the transformation, which may mean a werewolf may turn out better with fat reserves to use rather than a skinny human shapeshifting.

I wonder if the energy and speed of shifting could overheat the werewolf?

i think only a person would come a werewolf if got bitten by one. so the virus responsibe for rewritting human DNA can make way in the blood stream. and the virus is only found in WW siliva because the glands that make are located in the mouth in the WW. so secondary infection wont be a problem.

Anubis wrote:i think only a person would come a werewolf if got bitten by one. so the virus responsibe for rewritting human DNA can make way in the blood stream. and the virus is only found in WW siliva because the glands that make are located in the mouth in the WW. so secondary infection wont be a problem.

That doesn't make any sense for a couple of reasons:

A) Viruses aren't made by glands.
2) Why would the virus not be found anywhere but the mouth when you need it needs to be in the bloodstream first to infect someone.
B) I can't think of anything to put here, but this looks better with three points.

I dont think mosqitoes would be able to spread the WW viris. They dont help spread AIDS or anything which is really good, or we would all be royally screwed.

Blood Transfusions:Yes. Thats a lot of blood going into your system. I cant imagin someone getting a blood transfusion from WW blood and not getting the viris.

A fat human=a fat WW in my opinion. Though they would slim down some from the energy of shifting.

Forget West Nile, how about Elkhorn, Wisconsin Virus:

Mosquitoes as vectors... It depends on how stable the virus (or, technically, virus-like therianthropic vector) is outside a regular host. Ever popular HIV is not very stable; it takes work to get it. Hepatitis B and C is a bit easier.

I'm sure that if werewolves revealed themselves, one of the first urban legends to circle around would be the person who got it from a mosquito bite or a dentist.

Type, Crossmatch, and Transform 2 units packed RBCs:

Blood collected from donors is routinely screened for HIV and Hepatitis, and it is submitted through a battery of basic tests. Given the sheer amount of genetic information that would be needed to make a virus-like agent, the lycanthrope virus would probably be at least platelet sized, possibly larger. It would thus show up, erroneously as thrombocytosis, though this is a common enough normal finding that it would probably pass if it wasn't too great. However, the blood would also show other weird lab results, such as in my storyline polycythemia (the opposite of anemia--too many red cells), an elevated amylase and lipase (normal levels in canines, that if screened for and found could be mistaken for pancreatitis, a serious inflammation of a digestive organ), and elevated cholesterol--around 300 or so. (Canines have higher cholesterol than humans, but have completely clean arteries--they don't form plaques the way we do.)

The blood might be rejected, and the werewolf donor might be advised to see a doctor about this or that, or even urged to go to the ER. (Coincidently, I'm in one right now--not as a patient, but as the physician.)

Are humans low in carbs?:

The general consensus is that new onset lycanthropy is a risk for sudden death, and the risks are greater the worse one's health is. Someone who is morbidly obese is at increased risk for all kinds of problems.

For example, remember a few paragraphs ago, when I mentioned in parentheses that canines don't have atherosclerosis, the hardening of the arteries?

(Canines have higher cholesterol than humans, but have completely clean arteries--they don't form plaques the way we do.)

If existing clots are broken down rapidly, these plaques can break loose and form emboli--clumps of clots and stuff that can get stuck in arteries, blocking them off. The first place they'll go is where the highest blood flow is, which happens to be some of the most vital organs--the heart, brain, and kidneys. If they plug up coronary arteries, it's a heart attack; if the brain, a stroke. If they get stuck in the kidneys, it's messy, but considering lycanthropic regeneration, there may be a chance of recovery. Alternatively, a clot can break loose in a large vein, travel through the right side of the heart, and lodge in the lung as a pulmonary embolus. Large ones of these can be at least as deadly as a well-placed stroke or heart attack.

Assuming what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, I figure the obese person will burn off enough weight to be able to move around a little better, but he or she won't instantly become an athlete. However, he or she will have a better chance to lose the rest of the weight, because of the accelerated metabolism.

The way I see it, the werewolf virus is anly a virus to begin with, but after the person catches it, their DNA itself is re-written, as it were, to make the shape changing ability permanent. After that, the virus dies. This matters, because werewolves wouldn't have the virus in their blood stream at all unless they were just bitten. The mosquito or blood transfusion thing wouldn't work.

Also, their Saliva, I think, has the virus in it; but it must be injected by the were's teeth. Even if it could be injected another way, good luck finding a werewolf that would be willing to let you have it's spit...

Blood transfusions, maybe. At least, if they're the old style, direct person to person. If I was in charge of the universe bible, I'd declare that the virus is too fragile to survive the seperation and storage process blood banks use.

I'd also say the virus only affects humans, and thus a flea or mosquito wouldn't transfer it. Their own systems would destroy the virus, or corrupt it to the point where it no longer functions.

If the lycanthropy is of the magical variety, by the way, it'd be easy to declare that it must be by saliva to blood transfusion. That is to say, you're bitten by a werewolf hard enough to make you bleed.

i think a fat dude will silm down after becoming a werewolf transforming takes alot of calories. plus their freakish matbolism.

or just become a pudgy werewolf
jk

something that makes me go Hmmm.

why do asteroids go through the hemisphere and hemaroids(if thats how you spell it) are in Uranus (sorry couldn't resist)