French
DeutschList of fictional diseases
Diseases, disorders, infections, and pathogens have appeared in fiction as part of a major plot or thematic importance.[1]
In multiple media
[edit]| Name | Source | Description | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cooties | Children's games | A term used by children in the United States, with varied meaning. Cooties generally refers to an invisible germ, bug, or microscopic monster, transferred by skin to skin contact, usually with a member of the opposite sex. | [2] |
| Ligma | Internet memes and jokes | An ambiguous fictional disease described as fatal. The term is used as a set up to a joke due to its phonetic similarity to the words "lick my", with the punchline being "ligma balls", "ligma dick", or other variations. | [3] |
| Lycanthropy | Various | The disease transforms humans into vicious human-wolf hybrids known as "werewolves." In some stories, their bites and scratches can turn other humans into werewolves. | [4] |
| Vampirism | Various | Those infected, known as "vampires," are fanged monsters which feast upon human blood, while also infecting and transforming more humans into vampires. | [5] |
| Zombification | Various | Humans infected with the disease transform into mindless rotting cannibals known as "zombies," who bite and further infect others. | [6] |
In particular media
[edit]| Name | Source | Description | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Black Breath | J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth | An affliction contracted by "excessive proximity" to a Nazgûl, seems to be a "spiritual malady" combined with "fear, confusion, reduced levels of consciousness, hypothermia, weakness and death." | [7][8] |
| Corrupted blood | World of Warcraft | Initially contracted from fighting Hakkar, the god of blood, in the dungeon of Zul'Gurub. Highly infectious, with an incubation period of two seconds and can infect any person in the immediate area. | [9] |
| Las plagas | Resident Evil series | A parasitic organism which can infect a variety of hosts, including humans. It has the ability to control its host's behavior, inducing a hive-like mentality among the infected and extreme hostility towards uninfected individuals. The infected retain most of the characteristics of humans such as fine motor skills as seen through their use of simple weapons such as scythes and axes, and more complicated weapons such as chainsaws and chainguns. They are seen to obey "queen" parasites, much like ants. | [10] |
| Legacy Virus | Marvel Comics | A disease that targets only mutants, causing genetic and biological degradation and eventual death; shortly before death, the virus' effects cause a violent, uncontrolled flare-up of the victim's superhuman abilities. | [11] |
| The phage | Star Trek: Voyager | A necrotizing plague that affects members of the Vidiian species. Organ transplants are required for survival. | [12] |
| The Red Death | "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe | A disease resembling an epidemic plague. Represents death's inevitability, even to the rich who try to avoid it. | [13] |
| Techno-organic virus | Marvel Comics | A virus that transforms living tissue into techno-organic material, which resembles both machinery and living tissue. | [14] |
References
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^ Stableford 2006, p. 365.
- ^
- Merriam-Webster
- Samuelson 1980, p. 200
- ^
- ^
- Elridge 2025b
- Sartin 2019, pp. 43
- ^
- Elridge 2025a
- Sartin 2019, pp. 42–43
- ^
- Elridge 2025c
- Sartin 2019, pp. 44
- ^ Urquart, Jennifer (2014). "'The House of his Spirit Crumbles.' A medical consideration of Faramir's condition on his return from the retreat from Osgiliath, in The Lord of the Rings". Mallorn (55 Winter 2014): 14–17.
- ^ Ford, Judy Ann; Reid, Robin Anne (2009). "Councils and Kings: Aragorn's Journey Towards Kingship in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings". Tolkien Studies. 6 (1): 75–76. doi:10.1353/tks.0.0036. ISSN 1547-3163. Retrieved 2025-05-14.
- ^ Phelps & Lukosch 2020.
- ^ Fawcett & McGreevy 2019, pp. 90–92.
- ^ Much 2024, p. 399.
- ^
- Benitez 2023, pp. 207–208
- Gonzalez 2015, p. 172
- ^ Roppolo, Joseph Patrick (1967). "Meaning and 'The Masque of the Red Death'". In Regan, Robert (ed.). Poe: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. pp. 134–144.
- ^ Zachary 2021.
Bibliography
[edit]- Benitez, Siobhan (2023-05-22). "Seven Deadly Sins in the Delta Quadrant". In Brown, Shaun C.; Hackney, Amanda MacInnis (eds.). Theology and Star Trek. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 203–216. ISBN 978-1-9787-0712-2.
- Elridge, Alison (March 13, 2025a). "vampire". Britannica. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica. ISSN 1085-9721. Retrieved May 14, 2025.
- Elridge, Alison (March 14, 2025b). "werewolf". Britannica. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica. ISSN 1085-9721. Retrieved May 14, 2025.
- Elridge, Alison (April 27, 2025c). "zombie". Britannica. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica. ISSN 1085-9721. Retrieved May 14, 2025.
- Fawcett, Christina; McGreevy, Alan (2019-07-17). "Resident Evil and Infectious Fear". In Webley, Stephen J.; Zackariasson, Peter (eds.). The Playful Undead and Video Games: Critical Analyses of Zombies and Gameplay (1 ed.). Routledge. pp. 85–98. doi:10.4324/9781315179490. ISBN 978-1-315-17949-0.
- Gonzalez, George A. (2015). The Politics of Star Trek: Justice, War, and the Future. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US. doi:10.1057/9781137546326. ISBN 978-1-349-57755-2.
- Hernandez, Patricia (2018-07-23). "After making up a Twitch death hoax, the Internet can't stop joking about 'Ligma'". The Verge. Archived from the original on 2023-10-21. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
- Katzowitz, Josh (2018-07-23). "Fortnite star Ninja at the center of a death hoax involving a fake disease called Ligma". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on 2022-11-22. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
- Merriam-Webster. "cootie". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved May 14, 2025.
- Much, Josefa (2024-12-31). "Social-Distancing-Champions, die Angst vor dem Unbekannten und die Hoffnung auf Heilung: Die Inszenierung von Pandemie im X-Men-Universum". In Görgen, Arno; Eichinger, Tobias; Pfister, Eugen (eds.). Superspreader - Popkultur und mediale Diskurse im Angesicht der Pandemie. transcript Verlag. pp. 397–416. doi:10.1515/9783839471975-027. ISBN 978-3-8394-7197-5. Retrieved 2025-05-14.
- Phelps, Andrew M.; Lukosch, Heide (2020-05-06). "Online plagues, protein folding and spotting fake news: what games can teach us during the coronavirus pandemic". The Conversation. Retrieved 2025-05-14.
- Samuelson, Sue (July 1980). "The Cooties Complex". Western Folklore. 39 (3). Western States Folklore Society: 198–210. doi:10.2307/1499801. JSTOR 1499801.
- Sartin, Jeffrey S. (June 2019). "Contagious Horror: Infectious Themes in Fiction and Film". Clinical Medicine & Research. 17 (1–2): 41–46. doi:10.3121/cmr.2019.1432. ISSN 1539-4182. PMC 6546279. PMID 31160479.
- Stableford, Brian M. (2006). "Pathology". Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 363–366. ISBN 978-0-415-97460-8.
- Zachary, Brandon (2021-07-05). "Cable: Why the X-Force Leader NEEDS the Techno-Organic Virus". CBR. Retrieved 2025-05-14.
Further reading
[edit]- Christensen, Allan Conrad (2005). Nineteenth-century Narratives of Contagion: 'our Feverish Contact'. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-36048-7.
- Krémer, René (2003-08-01). "Les malades imaginés: Diseases in fiction". Acta Cardiologica. 58 (4): 349–354. doi:10.2143/ac.58.4.2005293.
- Roberts, Mark; VanderMeer, Jeff, eds. (2005-04-26). The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-553-38339-3.
- Rothfield, Lawrence (1995). Vital Signs: Medical Realism in Nineteenth-Century Fiction. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-02954-2.
- Tirard, Nestor (October 1886). "Disease in Fiction". The Nineteenth Century . Vol. 20, no. 116. pp. 579–591.
- Westfahl, Gary; Slusser, George (2002-09-30). No Cure for the Future: Disease and Medicine in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-0-313-31707-1.