hmmski
The disease must not neccessaily have been a virus. A prion is a protein that binds to other proteins and changes them to itself - this is a form of reproduction.
I would advocate that the crazies in 28 days were not infected by a virus based purely on the time it took for them to become infectious and show behavioural changes (about 5-20 seconds) - but then it was a film and this is just interesting talk :P
You're quite right about Toxoplasmosis; some good studies have shown this causes increased sociality in females and decreased sociality in males (and I cant find the papers if you want some proof lol).
The Syphilis thing I'm not so sure about. I cant say I've ever come across work on increased sex-drive in humans, but some funny stuff was shown in horses. Death due to brain damage takes literally years, if not decades.
What do you mean by my never having seen a rabid human? If you are referring to rabies in humans, then they do not become rabid. Rather they become hysterical and hallucinate (which is different) - many of these hallucinations have been reported as disturbing 'demons' that worsen on sight or contact with water. Hydrophobia is actually what kills humans. Guns usually kill the dogs. Nasty stuff. But actually the transmission of rabies in dogs is done with the biting. The saliva contains new viruses, hence the increased salivation in the classic 'foaming mouth rabid dog' image most people have.
Nice to meet someone who knows something about parasitology (or even just Biology in general)...
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