The Walking Dead (SPOILERS)

[ImTheWiseJanitor]

Eh, the show has pretty much nulled the concept that you can become a zombie by coming in contact with body fluids. What, with Rick and Daryl vivisecting a dead walker, for example. The only sure way to become a walker is to be bitten by one.

yeah. It pretty much goes like this - and it might be a spoiler from the comics, but it's not a big revelation I suppose - They either already have the "virus" or whatever it is in them, and it's not "active" until they die, or they can become infected through blood/bites/etc., and they don't turn until they die.

I only say either/or because I want to say that a character in the comics turned after dying without being bit or infected, but I can't remember a name. I really need to read through them again!

Edit - Basically, it's the fever and the injury from the bite or attack that kills them more than the "becoming a zombie" thing. If they can get that under control, then they won't turn. At least I think that's how it is in this zombie-verse.