Human beings turn into vampires due to a genetic flaw
“The face of a patient affected by porphyria at its late stages is badly deformed; his extremities become bent out of shape. By and large, he is a terrifying sight to look at,” said Sergei Vasilyev. “His complexion grows darker as his gums erode making the incisors look more protruding. The color of his incisors has a sinister blood-red hue in it so the teeth look as if they’ve been stained with blood. Besides, persons who suffer from porphyria are afraid of sunlight, which causes chronic inflammation and blistering. Therefore, they tend to leave their houses only at night. Mental disturbances follow in most cases…” added Vasilyev.
Lust for hemoglobin
According to some scientists, a bad case of porphyria may have prompted the sufferer to seek other person’s blood to temporarily alleviate the suffering. How could the sufferer get hold of the human blood in the Middle Ages? Numerous vampire stories contain a detailed description of the method. A person’s lust for blood is overwhelming; his self-preservation instincts turn him into a vampire. The rest belongs to myths and legends embellished with all kinds of bloodcurdling detailed.
“Porphyria is still one of the most mysterious diseases of our time,” said Vasilyev. Doctors hold out some hope of the genetic methods currently in the works. In the meantime, blood transfusion is widely used for treatment of the disorder. However, blood transfusion proves ineffective in the most severe cases of porphyria. Fortunately, the total number of the terminally ill patients diagnosed with porphyria around the globe is fairly small, around one hundred cases on record,” said Vasilyev.
Hennelora Kohl, the wife of the former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, was rumored to have suffered from an incurable case of porphyria. Her pains caused by sunlight were unbearable; she had to stay in most of her time. Finally, she took her own life on July 5th, 2001 .
Source: Komsomolskaya Pravda
Translated by Guerman Grachev
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