Instead of being literate nobility, they're usually peasants cursed to return from the grave nightly in order to shamble through their home villages calling the names of their loved ones in an attempt to get someone to feed upon. Or they're horrid looking creatures of almost pure evil who prey on infants and small children. It's in the surviving peasants' best interests to take out the vampires as soon as they're spotted and they make sure the knowledge necessary to get rid of vampires is passed down generation to generation. And there are a lot of ways to get rid of vampires. As many ways as there are vampires.
Vampires exist on nearly every continent on Earth and in nearly every society.
Most of them aren't what Americans tend to think of when someone says the word vampire either. Attacks livestock and people. Protective Jewish parents would have amulets crafted to protect their infant children from Lillith. These are not romantic creatures. These are terrible, frightening things created by people who needed explanations for strange and sudden deaths.