Just why are two doctors fighting Dracula unless he is a disease? Medical commentators have interpreted the story of Dracula as referring consciously or unconsciously to specific infections, especially rabies, cholera, tuberculosis and syphilis. Other commentators also note that a ‘disease model’ is being used, in terms of spread by contact, death or damage, and that this can also be seen as a metaphor for other social fears of the time, such as immigration and ‘degeneration’, especially arising from the East.