List of fictional diseases#In television

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Diseases, disorders, infections, and pathogens have appeared in fiction as part of a major plot or thematic importance.{{Sfn|Stableford|2006|p=365}}

__TOC__

In multiple media

class="wikitable sortable"

!width=110pt|Name

!width=140pt|Source

!class=unsortable|Description

!class=unsortable|Ref.

Cooties

|Children's games

|Cooties was a common term to refer to head lice. In the United States children use the term to refer to an invisible germ, bug, or microscopic monster, transferred by skin-to-skin contact, usually by a member of the opposite sex.

|{{Multiref|{{Harvnb|Merriam-Webster}}|{{Harvnb|Samuelson|1980|p=200}}}}

Hanahaki disease

|Fan fiction and fan art

|A fictional illness in which a person suffering from unrequited or suppressed love begins to cough up flower petals, with the condition worsening the longer the love remains unreturned.

|{{cite web |last=Hale-Stern |first=Kaila |date=1 September 2021 |title=What Is Hanahaki Disease, Fandom's Favorite Fictional Ailment? |url=https://www.themarysue.com/what-is-hanahaki-disease/ |access-date=30 May 2025 |website=The Mary Sue}}{{cite web |last=Penha |first=Elisa |date=6 March 2024 |title=In Sickness and In Health: Memories from the Time of Hanahaki Disease in Fanfiction |url=https://actavictoriana.ca/culture/in-sickness-and-in-health-memories-from-the-time-of-hanahaki-disease-in-fanfiction/ |access-date=30 May 2025 |website=Acta Victoriana}}

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.

|{{Multiref|{{Harvnb|Katzowitz|2018}}|{{Harvnb|Hernandez|2018}}}}

Lycanthropy

|Various

|The disease transforms humans into vicious human-wolf hybrids known as werewolves. In some stories, their bites or scratches can turn other humans into werewolves.

|{{Multiref|{{Harvnb|Elridge|2025b}}|{{Harvnb|Sartin|2019|pp=43}}}}

Vampirism

|Various

|Vampires are nocturnal fanged "undead" humans who can become bats when needed. In human form they prowl the night and bite living humans on the neck to drink their blood. Humans who are bitten become vampires perpetuating the species. Vampires are afraid of Christian crosses, are burned by holy water, and are killed only by a driving a wooden stake through their hearts while day-sleeping in their coffins.

|{{Multiref|{{Harvnb|Elridge|2025a}}|{{Harvnb|Sartin|2019|pp=42-43}}}}

Zombification

|Various

|Humans infected with the disease transform into mindless rotting cannibals known as zombies, who bite and further infect others.

{{Multiref|{{Harvnb|Elridge|2025c}}|{{Harvnb|Sartin|2019|pp=44}}}}

In particular media

class="wikitable sortable"

!width=110pt|Name

!width=140pt|Source

!class=unsortable|Description

!class=unsortable|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".

|{{cite journal |last=Urquart |first=Jennifer |title='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 |journal=Mallorn |date=2014 |issue=55 Winter 2014 |pages=14–17 |url=https://journals.tolkiensociety.org/mallorn/article/download/50/44}}{{cite journal | last1=Ford | first1=Judy Ann | last2=Reid | first2=Robin Anne | title=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 | journal=Tolkien Studies | volume=6 | issue=1 | date=2009 | issn=1547-3163 | doi=10.1353/tks.0.0036 | pages=75–76 | url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/266266 | access-date=2025-05-14| url-access=subscription }}

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.

|{{Sfn|Phelps|Lukosch|2020}}

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.

|{{Sfn|Fawcett|McGreevy|2019|pp=90-92}}

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.

|{{Sfn|Much|2024|p=399}}

The phage

|Star Trek: Voyager

|A necrotizing plague that affects members of the Vidiian species. Organ transplants are required for survival.

|{{Multiref|{{Harvnb|Benitez|2023|pp=207-208}}|{{Harvnb|Gonzalez|2015|p=172}}}}

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.

|{{cite book|last=Roppolo |first=Joseph Patrick |editor-last=Regan |editor-first=Robert |chapter=Meaning and 'The Masque of the Red Death'|title=Poe: A Collection of Critical Essays|url=https://archive.org/details/poecollectionofc00rega |location= Englewood Cliffs, NJ|publisher= Prentice-Hall, Inc.|date= 1967|pages=134–144}}

Techno-organic virus

|Marvel Comics

|A virus that transforms living tissue into techno-organic material, which resembles both machinery and living tissue.

|{{Sfn|Zachary|2021}}

References

= Citations =

= Bibliography =

{{Cite book |last=Benitez |first=Siobhan |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Shaun C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1L4IEQAAQBAJ |title=Theology and Star Trek |editor2-last=Hackney |editor2-first=Amanda MacInnis |chapter=Seven Deadly Sins in the Delta Quadrant |date=2023-05-22 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-9787-0712-2 |pages=203–216 |language=en}}
{{Cite EBO |title=vampire |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/vampire |access-date=May 14, 2025 |last=Elridge |first=Alison |date=March 13, 2025a}}
{{Cite EBO |title=werewolf |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/werewolf |access-date=May 14, 2025 |last=Elridge |first=Alison |date=March 14, 2025b}}
{{Cite EBO |title=zombie |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/zombie-fictional-creature |access-date=May 14, 2025 |last=Elridge |first=Alison |date=April 27, 2025c}}
{{Cite book |chapter=Resident Evil and Infectious Fear |last1=Fawcett |first1=Christina |last2=McGreevy |first2=Alan |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/10.4324/9781315179490-7/resident-evil-infectious-fear-christina-fawcett-alan-mcgreevy |title=The Playful Undead and Video Games: Critical Analyses of Zombies and Gameplay |pages=85–98 |date=2019-07-17 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-315-17949-0 |editor-last=Webley |editor-first=Stephen J. |edition=1 |language=en |doi=10.4324/9781315179490 |editor-last2=Zackariasson |editor-first2=Peter}}
{{Cite book |last=Gonzalez |first=George A. |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1057/9781137546326 |title=The Politics of Star Trek: Justice, War, and the Future |date=2015 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |isbn=978-1-349-57755-2 |location=New York |language=en |doi=10.1057/9781137546326}}
{{Cite web |last=Hernandez |first=Patricia |date=2018-07-23 |title=After making up a Twitch death hoax, the Internet can't stop joking about 'Ligma' |url=https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/23/17602822/ligma-ninja-twitch-death-hoax |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231021081504/https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/23/17602822/ligma-ninja-twitch-death-hoax |archive-date=2023-10-21 |access-date=2023-10-12 |website=The Verge |language=en}}
{{Cite web |last=Katzowitz |first=Josh |date=2018-07-23 |title=Fortnite star Ninja at the center of a death hoax involving a fake disease called Ligma |url=https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/ninja-what-is-ligma/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221122203625/https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/ninja-what-is-ligma/ |archive-date=2022-11-22 |access-date=2022-11-22 |website=The Daily Dot |language=en-US}}
{{Cite MW|cootie|access-date=May 14, 2025|3=include_author}}
{{Cite book |last=Much |first=Josefa |chapter=Social-Distancing-Champions, die Angst vor dem Unbekannten und die Hoffnung auf Heilung: Die Inszenierung von Pandemie im X-Men-Universum |date=2024-12-31 |title=Superspreader - Popkultur und mediale Diskurse im Angesicht der Pandemie |pages=397–416 |editor-last=Görgen |editor-first=Arno |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783839471975-027/html |access-date=2025-05-14 |publisher=transcript Verlag |doi=10.1515/9783839471975-027 |isbn=978-3-8394-7197-5 |editor2-last=Eichinger |editor2-first=Tobias |editor3-last=Pfister |editor3-first=Eugen}}
{{Cite web |last1=Phelps |first1=Andrew M. |last2=Lukosch |first2=Heide |date=2020-05-06 |title=Online plagues, protein folding and spotting fake news: what games can teach us during the coronavirus pandemic |url=https://theconversation.com/online-plagues-protein-folding-and-spotting-fake-news-what-games-can-teach-us-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-137490 |access-date=2025-05-14 |website=The Conversation |language=en-US}}
{{Cite journal |last=Samuelson |first=Sue |title=The Cooties Complex |date=July 1980 |journal=Western Folklore |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=198–210 |publisher=Western States Folklore Society |doi=10.2307/1499801 |jstor=1499801}}
{{Cite journal |last=Sartin |first=Jeffrey S. |date=June 2019 |title=Contagious Horror: Infectious Themes in Fiction and Film |journal=Clinical Medicine & Research |language=en |volume=17 |issue=1–2 |pages=41–46 |doi=10.3121/cmr.2019.1432 |issn=1539-4182 |pmc=6546279 |pmid=31160479}}
{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Pathology |pages=363–366 |last=Stableford |first=Brian M. |encyclopedia=Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia |date=2006 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-415-97460-8 |language=en}}
{{Cite web |last=Zachary |first=Brandon |date=2021-07-05 |title=Cable: Why the X-Force Leader NEEDS the Techno-Organic Virus |url=https://www.cbr.com/cable-needs-techno-organic-virus/ |access-date=2025-05-14 |website=CBR |language=en}}

List of fictional diseases#In television

In multiple media

In particular media

References

= Citations =

= Bibliography =

Further reading