'Vampires' keep doctors in the dark for fear of stereotyping

'Vampires' keep doctors in the dark for fear of stereotyping

"People who identify themselves as 'real' vampires – that is, needing others’ blood to gain energy – would not disclose their practices to those in the helping professions and risk reactions like ridicule, disgust and possible (??) diagnosis of a mental illness."

I added the question marks.

"The global vampire population is thought to number in the thousands, he said. Williams, who has studied self-identified vampires for nearly a decade, finds they come from every walk of life and profession, including doctors, attorneys and candlestick makers."

So there's like a thousand vampires and at least one of them is a candlestick maker? Just how many candlestick makers are there in the world?

Can you kill a vampire by driving a candlestick through his heart? More important, do you leave the candle in or out?