List of fictional diseases

Zombification is a fictional disease which turns humans into mindless cannibals known as zombies.

Diseases, disorders, infections, and pathogens have appeared in fiction as part of a major plot or thematic importance. ^[1]

In multiple media

Name	Source	Description	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.	[2]
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.	[3] [4]
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.	[5]
Lycanthropy	Various	A contagious curse or disease which transforms people into mutant human-wolf hybrid monsters known as werewolves. In many stories, werewolves can infect and turn other people into werewolves through bites and scratches.	[6]
Vampirism	Various	A contagious curse or disease which transforms people into (usually undead) monsters known as vampires, which feed on the blood of normal humans and other living creatures. In many stories, vampires can infect and turn other people into vampires, usually through bite wounds or by injecting vampire blood into their body.	[7]
Zombification	Various	A contagious curse or disease which transforms people into (usually undead) monsters known as zombies, which feed on the flesh of normal humans and other living creatures. In many stories, zombies can infect and turn other people into zombies by biting them.	[8]

In particular media

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".	[9] [10] [11]
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.	[12]
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.	[13]
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.	[14]
Phage The phage	Star Trek: Voyager	A necrotizing plague that affects members of the Vidiian species. Organ transplants are required for survival.	[15]
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.	[16] [17] [18] [19] [20]
Techno-organic virus	Marvel Comics	A virus that transforms living tissue into techno-organic material, which resembles both machinery and living tissue.	[21]

References

Citations

1. Stableford 2006, p. 365.
2. • Merriam-Webster
   • Samuelson 1980, p. 200
3. Hale-Stern, Kaila (1 September 2021). "What Is Hanahaki Disease, Fandom's Favorite Fictional Ailment?". The Mary Sue . Retrieved 30 May 2025.
4. Penha, Elisa (6 March 2024). "In Sickness and In Health: Memories from the Time of Hanahaki Disease in Fanfiction". Acta Victoriana . Retrieved 30 May 2025.
5. • Katzowitz 2018
   • Hernandez 2018
6. • Elridge 2025b
   • Sartin 2019, pp. 43
7. • Elridge 2025a
   • Sartin 2019, pp. 42–43
8. • Elridge 2025c
   • Sartin 2019, pp. 44
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. Hartley, Gregory. “A Wind from the West: The Role of the Holy Spirit in Tolkien’s Middle-Earth.” Christianity and Literature, vol. 62, no. 1, 2012, pp. 95–120. JSTOR. Accessed 30 Jan. 2026.
12. Phelps & Lukosch 2020.
13. Fawcett & McGreevy 2019, pp. 90–92.
14. Much 2024, p. 399.
15. • Benitez 2023, pp. 207–208
    • Gonzalez 2015, p. 172
16. 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.
17. Engber, Daniel. "The Weird Science of Edgar Allan Poe." Atlantic Monthly, vol. 328, no. 1, July 2021, pp. 84–87. , EBSCOhost
18. Almahameed, Atef Adel, et al. “Death Portrayals in Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Masque of the Red Death’: A Transtextual Study in Relation to the Holy Qur’an and Arabic Literary Heritage.” Advances in Language and Literary Studies, vol. 9, no. 5, Oct. 2018, pp. 84–91. EBSCOhost.
19. Cook, Jonathan A. (2019-12-10). "Poe and the Apocalyptic Sublime". Religion and the Arts. 23 (5). Walter de Gruyter GmbH: 489–515. doi:10.1163/15685292-02305002. ISSN   1079-9265.
20. Del Guercio, Gerardo. “Fear and Symbolic Imagery in Poe’s ‘The Masque of the Red Death.’” Critical Insights: Paranoia, Fear & Alienation, Dec. 2016, pp. 71–83. EBSCOhost
21. Zachary 2021.

Bibliography

• 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". Encyclopædia Britannica (Online  ed.). Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. ISSN   1085-9721 . Retrieved May 14, 2025.
• Elridge, Alison (March 14, 2025b). "werewolf". Encyclopædia Britannica (Online  ed.). Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. ISSN   1085-9721 . Retrieved May 14, 2025.
• Elridge, Alison (April 27, 2025c). "zombie". Encyclopædia Britannica (Online  ed.). Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 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

• 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. PMID   12948041.
• 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.