can open emails start a virus?

I received an email with ... in the subject line and when I opened it, the email was blank. I wrote to the contact who was someone I know and asked if she'd sent it and she said no, she presumed it was sent by someone unknown who'd gotten into her account.

I know not to click on links, but can a virus or worm or trojan be started by simply opening an email like that?

Norgates

 

thanks, not at this time. I've received a number of emails with a single link in them and also the ones with the "I've been robbed, please send money" scam, but this was the first one that was blank.