Vampires are even more susceptible to AIDS than people. After all, people need food, clothing and shelter. The only necessities for vampires are blood and darkness. Deny or pollute either and the results are immediate. The virus dissolves their canines. And a vampire without the ability to drink will perish.
It is strange, but being immortal makes them more finite. They have no soul to travel to the land of eternity, so they return to dust. Perhaps that is why Thanatos, ferryman to forever, feels the need to prolong their existence.
Thanatos has always been a ferryman to the dead. He waits for souls on the banks of the river Styx. If they have a coin for payment, he’ll row them across. If not, they are forced to wander the shore for over one hundred years, but the dead are in no hurry. They have no shortage of time. One hundred years is not even a blip in the sea of eternity.