Actually, it makes sense when you think about it. Everyone already has the virus, so the virus itself isn't the cause of death. Human mouths are known to be just nasty when it comes to bites and now the biter is dead, decomposing, not practicing good oral hygiene, and eating, well, anything. That makes for an absolute cesspool of a mouth. My assertion is that zombie goo (blood, treacle, etc) is not overly infectious to a healthy human, but a bite (or bites) is more infections than a normal human bite for reasons explained above. Ergo, the bitee dies from a massive infection and systemic shutdown rather than anything specific to the virus itself. Toss into the mix a stressed body, lack of medical care, and overall lack of hygiene and you see how it kills like it does.
Chris
