First Ever 'Vampire Virus' in the U.S. Continues to Be Studied

Scientists continue to study one of the most crucial health discoveries, calling it the Vampire Virus. This is because it attaches itself to other ruses and essentially makes copies of itself before releasing those viruses according to the Scientific American website.

Here in the U.S. is where this virus was first discovered in November of 2023 so there’s still so much to learn about it.

According to Popular Science, scientists observed one virus attaching itself to another virus. Basically, these viruses prey on other viruses so they can replicate themselves. They do this by attaching themselves to the neck of the other virus, thus naming it the Vampire Virus.

Basically one virus is sucking on another creating a replicate. Just to get technical for a quick moment, the viruses that do this are groups that infect bacteria called bacteriophages.

The Vampire Virus was discovered by scientists at the University of Maryland and one of the scientists, Tagide DeCaralho, says it took a very special microscope to discover viruses latching onto each other like this.

I could see literally hundreds of them had this little guy attached to the neck, and it was clearly not random. We know that viruses can do some amazing, interesting things. But this is just another new thing that no one could have predicted we would see. I can’t believe this. No one has ever seen a bacteriophage—or any other virus—attach to another virus.

So what does this mean for us?

According to The Conversation website, this groundbreaking discovery means a new way to study viral infections and hopefully help revolutionize how to combat them. The more scientists can study new viruses, the better equipped they become to fight them according to Scientific American.

COVID-19 taught scientists and doctors alike that the supply of antivirals’ and the predatory nature of them is limited. Hopefully, this will open new avenues for antiviral therapy according to The Conversation.