For years Hollywood has been portraying zombies as corpses that have been brought back to life and for the most part people are expecting that's what the zombie apocalypse will be. Perhaps we are looking in the wrong place. The thought of dead bodies rising from the ground and corpses walking around seems a little far fetched to me but maybe there is another cause of zombie-like behavior. Take Toxoplasmosis for instance. This particular infection is caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Normally it only infects rats and causes them to act in a manner that would lead to death, usually by cats, which is how their life cycle is completed. This parasite has also been known to inhabit pigs and cows and the CDC has reported that "More than 60 million men, women and children in the U.S. carry the Toxoplasma parasite". If this parasite can make rats act strangely than who is to say it couldn't effect humans? Dr. E. Fyller Torrey at the Stanely Research Institute made a connection between this parasite and and schizophrenia.
Toxoplasmosis isn't only thing that can alter behavior. Take for instance the epidemic in Uganda they call the "nodding disease". It usually only effects children between 5 and 15. This disease is very debilitating. It causes seizures and most of the children effected wander around aimlessly. Most have to be tied down to keep them from just wandering off. The CDC has no known cure but they believe it is transmitted by a parasite from the black fly. While this disease is serious and nothing to joke about it can make you wonder. How long is it until an epidemic that can effect humans enough to act "zombie-like" spreads across the country with no known cure?
