01/02/2026

ON SUNDAY February 1, 2026 VI theSunday Special

Vampires, myths, medicine and menace

V AMPIRES. The very word conjures images of capes, fangs and candlelit castles somewhere deep in the Car pathians. B HKLQG WKH SRS FXOWXUH SROLVK RI ¿OP and fashion lies a long shadow of folklore, superstition and questionable dental hygiene. These bloodthirsty creatures have haunted our collective imagination for centuries, shapeshifting through his tory from terrifying revenants to tortured antiheroes with cheekbones that could slice glass. Here are a few facts about vampires, ranging from the intriguing to the down ULJKW XQVHWWOLQJ

BY AQILAH NAJWA JAMALUDDIN

Additional fun fact, though: Vlad him self is buried somewhere in Romania, though the location is contested. His real resting place may or may not be empty. Make of that what you will. How to kill something dead Despite the clichés, it is surprisingly GL̇ FXOW WR VHWWOH RQ WKH SURSHU PHWKRG for killing a vampire. Some say a wooden stake through the heart; others insist on GHFDSLWDWLRQ RU ¿UH ,Q VRPH WUDGLWLRQV you need to burn the heart and scatter the ashes over running water. Silver sometimes comes up, too, though that is more of a werewolf thing. Holy water, garlic, crosses and sunlight blessed soil; each culture has its own vampire control method. What they all have in common, though, is an underlying belief that vampires are not just predators but perversions of the natural order. In short, you cannot simply kill them like animals. You must undo them. Modern vampires are glamorous T RGD\¶V YDPSLUHV DUH FRQÀLFWHG FUHDWXUHV They brood. They fall in love. They sparkle XQGHU WKH VXQ DQG VX̆ HU H[LVWHQWLDO GUHDG The horror has given way to drama and the fangs have become symbols of desire rather than danger. From Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire to Twilight to What We Do in the Shadows, vampires have become pop culture chameleons. They reflect us to ourselves, distorted but familiar. That might be the most unsettling fact of all. The vampire has survived for centuries not just by drinking blood but by adapting. It has gone from rural myth to Gothic icon to romantic antihero and in every version, we see a little of our own fears, our own vanity, our own thirst for immortality. So, the next time you read a vampire novel or binge a series about tortured bloodsuckers, remember you are not just watching a monster. You are looking in the mirror.

,W PRYHV ZLWK VWL̆ OLPEV DQG KRSV UDWKHU than glides. Picture a zombie with better posture and worse motor skills. Some psychic vampires are said to feed on emotional energy. They are the kind of people who leave you drained after a conversation. Are they supernatural? Debatable. Are they real? Absolutely. You probably know one. They have a passport problem Here is a bureaucratic nightmare. In 1973, the city of London issued a passport for Dracula. It was part of a promotional VWXQW IRU D ¿OP EXW LW GLG VSDUN D PLQRU scandal. Romania’s Communist regime was not amused. They considered Dracula a historical insult to their national hero, Vlad the ,PSDOHU ZKR LQVSLUHG 6WRNHU¶V ¿FWLRQDO Count. A vampire with papers? A bit much for Cold War diplomacy.

VSHFL¿F \HW ZLGHO\ DFFHSWHG 7KH EHOLHI likely stems from garlic’s association with KHDOWK DQG SXUL¿FDWLRQ In the Middle Ages, people believed that garlic had the power to ward off disease and evil spirits. Since vampires were thought to spread sickness, the logic followed that garlic might keep them at bay. Today, garlic is more likely to end a date than a vampire, but the association persists. Just do not expect to see it used H̆ HFWLYHO\ LQ DQ\ VHULRXV VHOI GHIHQFH ,I an actual vampire is chasing you, your best bet is to run, not cook. They could be real and among us This is not to say there are immortal beings lurking in castles, but some real medical conditions may have inspired vampire legends. One of the most cited is porphyria, a rare blood disorder that can cause sensitivity to sunlight, discoloured teeth and even hallucinations. Another theory involves catalepsy, a condition that can cause people to enter a trance-like state that resembles death. Someone buried alive in such a state could DZDNHQ LQ WKHLU FṘ Q OHDGLQJ WR WKH EHOLHI that they had returned from the dead. Then there is tuberculosis. In the 19th century, entire families would succumb to the disease and people believed one dead relative was draining the others from the grave. It all added up to vampire hysteria, especially in rural areas where science had not yet caught up with folklore. Blood isn’t really their favourite Not all vampires are equal opportunity haemovores. In fact, some never drank blood at all. In Chinese folklore, the ji angshi is a reanimated corpse that feeds RQ OLIH HQHUJ\ UDWKHU WKDQ ERGLO\ ÀXLGV

Fear of disease once led communities to exhume and mutilate corpses.