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List of fictional diseases
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This article is a list of fictional diseases — nonexistent, named medical conditions which appear in fiction where they have a major plot or thematic importance. They may be fictional psychological disorders, magical, from mythological or fantasy settings, have evolved naturally, been engineered artificially (most often created as biological weapons, but not always), or be any illness that came forth from the (ab)use of technology.
Items in this list are followed by a brief description of symptoms and other details.
- Revisions and sourced additions are welcome.
Contents |
| Name | Source | Symptoms |
|---|---|---|
| Broadcast Insanity | The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury |
A Martian disease, hallucinations are visible to others. Curable only by euthanasia, which is often performed as it is contagious. |
| Captain Trips | The Stand by Stephen King |
A deadly, flu-based virus. Causes a lethally high fever and is highly contagious. So deadly because as the body fights off the disease, it mutates into different strains of influenza, making immunity next to impossible. Also called Superflu. |
| The Ripley | Dreamcatcher by Stephen King |
An alien parasitoid macrovirus. The adult aliens resemble deformed potato beings with legs, while the younger aliens - nicknamed "shit-weasels" because they can be created in a host organism's stomach and escape by eating their host's body between the stomach and anus - are legless, smaller versions of the adult alien. Both adult and young aliens have a mouth consisting of a slit on the underside of the head that goes down the length of the worm. The lips separate to reveal hundreds of teeth that can bite through steel. |
| Descolada | Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card |
a quasi-conscious self-modifying organism capable of infecting any form of life."Descolada" is also the Portuguese word for "unglued". In the context of the book, this refers to the Descolada virus's effects; it breaks the link of the DNA double helix (ungluing it) and induces mutations. |
| The Red Death | "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe |
Victims bleed from their pores before eventually dying. (See also Scarlet Plague.) |
| Scarlet Plague | The Scarlet Plague by Jack London |
This 1912 novella, also known as the Scarlet Death, is a work of post-apocalyptic fiction treating the world after civilization has been destroyed by this fictional disease. |
| Snow Crash | Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson |
A dangerous drug which is both a computer virus capable of infecting the brains of unwary hackers in the Metaverse and a mind-altering virus distributed by a network of Pentecostal churches via its infrastructure and belief system. |
| Venus Particle | Tyrannosaur Canyon | An extraterrestrial infectious particle found in a lunar rock sample and within a fantastically well-preserved tyrannosaur fossil in the New Mexico desert. It is later revealed that the organism came to Earth via the Chicxulub asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs. The particle, which was named for its resemblance to the symbol of Venus and femininity, causes rapid mitosis and apparent cellular differentiation in its host. |
| White blindness | Blindness by José Saramago |
A mysterious epidemic of sudden blindness affecting virtually all humanity, leading to society's collapse. So-called because victims see nothing but a white glare. |
| White Disease | The White Disease by Karel Capek |
An incurable mysterious form of leprosy, killing people older than 30. |
| White Plague | The White Plague by Frank Herbert |
A genetically engineered virus that kills only women. |
| Name | Source | Symptoms |
|---|---|---|
| Andromeda Strain | The Andromeda Strain | A deadly disease of extraterrestrial origin which causes rapid, fatal clotting of the blood. |
| Brain Cloud | Joe Versus the Volcano | The brain cloud has no symptoms—apart from quickly and painlessly killing in about six months. |
| Closed Shell Syndrome | Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex | A type of autism caused by cyberbrain implants. |
| Cyberbrain Sclerosis | Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex | Cyberbrain implant malady resembling multiple sclerosis, eventually fatal. |
| Hemoglophagia (HGV) | Ultraviolet | Disease responsible for turning many humans into vampire-like creatures. |
| Motaba | Outbreak | Ebola-like virus with first symptoms coughing then quickly advancing to flu-like stage. |
| Rage | 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later | Rage causes extreme aggression in a victim only seconds after being infected with the disease. The disease is easily transmissible through any bodily fluid. Because of this extreme contagiousness and very short incubation time, a crowd of hundreds could be infected by one single individual in a manner of minutes. The disease is hypothesized to be a mutated strain of ebola. Animal testing was being performed on the disease but one animal was released by activists unaware of the virus. The infection soon spread to eliminate the entire population of Britain save a few lucky individuals who managed to survive. |
| Unknown | Twelve Monkeys | Unknown other than it's a virus. The main protagonist James Cole is sent into the past to gather information on the Twelve Monkeys, the organisation that spread the pathogen that nearly exterminated all humanity. |
| "The Fever" | Cabin Fever | A flesh eating disease that digs in your skin, and causes it to rot away, is extremely contagious, and causes one to vomit blood. |
| Name | Source | Symptoms |
|---|---|---|
| Drafa Plague | Babylon 5 | Neutralizes chemicals in the synaptic gap, thus inhibiting nerve signals from the brain to the rest of the body. Without clear direction from the brain as a result of the signals being blocked, the organs lose their ability to function correctly. For those that can be affected, the disease is 100% contagious, and if left untreated 100% terminal. |
| Hate Plague | Transformers | Bacterial spore of unknown origin transmitted by touch. Induces extreme paranoia and aggression in the infected, causing them to strike out against anyone or anything in an increasingly maddening desire to destroy. Symptoms include a deep reddish glow emanating from the infected. The only curative is intense logic and wisdom, which presumably counters the extreme irrationality the disease causes in its victims. |
| Lurgy (The Dreaded Lurgi) | The Goon Show | A disease that causes anyone who catches it to say nothing but 'Eeee-yakkaboo!'. |
| Macrovirus | Star Trek: Voyager | An airborne pathogen-by-proxy that infects endothermic humanoids with a virus, causing the host to get lethargic and churn out more macroviruses until he/she/it wastes away and dies. When some of the bugs invaded Voyager, the EMH was able to synthesize a cure. |
| Psi-2000 Virus | Star Trek | A mutated form of water that spreads by touch which causes its victims to act in a way similar to being drunk. However, the effects do not wear off and eventually will cause victims to make dangerous decisions. |
| Name | Source | Symptoms |
|---|---|---|
| Corrupted Blood | World of Warcraft | Initially contracted from killing Hakkar, the God of Blood, in the dungeon of Zul'Gurub. Highly infectious, with an incubation period of 2 seconds and can infect any person in the immediate area. Referred to WoW players as "the Plague", "Hakkar's SARS" or "WoW AIDS" for a major outbreak of the virtual plague in the game due to a programming error. |
| Diathronitis | Larn | Afflicts daughter of player character; serves as primary motivation for gameplay. |
| Gray Death | Deus Ex | A global plague engineered using nanotechnology within a Universal Constructor by Majestic-12, the Gray Death virus is actually a hybrid (cyborganic) disease of biological and mechanical structures. It is based on the adverse and ultimately lethal effects of nanotechnology on an unmodified human body. Named the Gray Death because of the gray patches of discoulored scar tissue that cover its victims' skins, if and when the disease is cured. Symptoms include the aforementioned discolouration of the skin, coughing, physical pain and death. |
| Porphyric Hemophilia | The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion | Causes vampirism after an incubation period of three days. If the player is infected, they can go through a quest to cure the disease, however it is not necessary to be cured to complete the quest. |
| Progenitor Virus | Resident Evil | In the back-story of the series, the Progenitor virus is the primary virus created by the Umbrella Corporation, a mutagen based off of ebola. Successor viruses include the G-Virus and the T-Virus (see below). |
| G-Virus | Resident Evil 2 | A mutagenic pathogen which causes the host to become a big, constantly evolving, practically unstoppable killing machine, with exceedingly high attack power and immense vitality, in addition to the ability to regenerate and mutate so quickly the carrier virtually loses its mortality. The purified virus can be injected directly into the host, or a mutated host can implant a small larvae, called a G-embryo into another host. The latter mode of transmission is most successful when the host and the new victim are genetically similar. The virus would later merge with the T-Virus, creating an extremely dangerous, electromagnetic-capable variant called the T/G Virus. |
| T-Virus | Resident Evil | A virus that causes dementia and cellular necrosis. It can easily mutate into other strains, some of which have mutagenic effects on the host. If the carrier is an insect, the resulting mutation often involves increased aggressiveness, increased size, and (almost always) the development of poisonous traits. In mammals, the mutations include aggressiveness, physiological changes of varying degrees, and an extremely increased evolutionary rate. Variants include the NE-T-virus, the Code Veronica virus and the T/G Virus. |
| Las Plagas | Resident Evil 4 | A parasitic, wormlike organism which can infect a variety of hosts, including humans. It has the ability to control its host's behaviour, inducing a hive-like mentality among the infected and extreme hostility towards uninfected individuals. The infected can use simple weapons such as scythes and knives. |
| Wailing Death | Neverwinter Nights | A bubonic-like plague that infects almost the entire city of Neverwinter. Thought to be just a natural plague, it is later discovered that it was magically created and unleashed upon the city. |
- List of fictional medicines and drugs
- List of fictional toxins
- The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases Jeff VanderMeer & Mark Roberts (ed). ISBN 0553383396
Disease in Fiction. Its place in current literature Nestor Tirard, 1886.
Vital Signs Medical Realism in Nineteenth-Century Fiction Lawrence Rothfield, 1992. ASIN B000J0QZSC
Les malades imaginés: Diseases in fiction René Krémer. Journal: Acta Cardiologica, 2003.
No Cure for the Future: Disease and Medicine in Science Fiction and Fantasy Gary Westfahl & George Slusser, 2002. ISBN 0313317070
Nineteenth-Century Narratives of Contagion Allan Conrad Christensen, 2005. ISBN 041536048X