Question: can bacteria turn humans like us into zombies?

Jane Paget answered on 23 Jun 2013:

Believe or not this is actually a very complex question which I could attempt to answer from quite a few different angles.

Although there are no bacteria which could re-animate a humans dead body there are a couple of ‘zombie like features’ that a bacteria could give. For example there are a few bacteria that are spread by the droplets of respiratory secretions. This would include things such as kissing, sneezing, coughing and like a zombie biting. Although you wouldn’t instantaneously have the associated disease as the bacteria need time to infect its new host and replicate. There is also growing evidence that bacteria in our gut could alter our behaviour but how and to what extent in still a big question.

The closest thing to a zombie in nature is a so-called zombie ant. The worker ant becomes infected by a fungi that grows in its brain. Instead of following the paths of its fellow workers it climbs high into the tree tops and bites into a leaf where it is stuck. The ant dies having been eaten from the inside out and a fungal hyphae starts to grow from its head. These release spores which go on to infect other ant. Yikes – Maybe a fungi is the way to go for halloween costume this year.