Question: First movie featuring blood transference?

[pmarshall]

I'm researching a book and can't find this ANYWHERE. Hoping someone here knows. What was the first living dead movie in which the living could become infected/whatever through the transference of blood? Like in 28 Days Later, we see the Rage virus passing through blood in the eye, etc. Anyone know where that first appeared?

[krakenslayer]

I might be wrong, but I have a vague recollection that Mutant had zombie-like monsters whose blood had turned into a sort of acidic toxic waste. This was the same stuff that created the monsters in the first place, so exposure to their "blood" would turn you into one of them (if my memory serves - not sure, you should probably check that before using it).

Also, in the original I Am Legend novel, the plague was passed on by a blood-borne bacillus. In theory, I guess, that would make it the first example -- i.e. in theory the infection could be picked up by contact with infected blood -- but I don't recall any explicit mention of blood as a disease vector in the story.