When it comes to 10 fictional plagues, nothing beats the sheer imagination of storytellers who turn disease into drama. No one likes getting sick. Debilitating illnesses drain your energy and cause all kinds of nasty fluids to come out of your body. If allowed to spread, these diseases can decimate an entire population. As bad as that sounds, fiction is arguably worse.

Why 10 Fictional Plagues Capture Our Imagination

10 Red Flu

The Last Ship (2014–2018) may seem like just a naval action show, but it really revolves around a worldwide pandemic. Dubbed the “Red Flu” by some parties, this disease stems from an ancient plant virus buried in the Arctic. Touch helps transmit it, but you can also get sick from breathing contaminated air. Once infected, you suffer from intense fevers and exhaustion. You then develop grotesque lesions all over your body before your system shuts down. The sickness works quickly and efficiently.

That efficacy lets the virus wipe out most of the globe. It easily erodes entire governments, leaving the world in chaos. As bad as that is, you might be more disgusted at what it does to the survivors. Several cultlike leaders use the crisis to frame themselves as saviors and seize power. As much as it bonds the navy sailors, strife of this scale also brings out the worst of humanity.

9 Vampirism

It’s no secret that vampires can bite humans to turn them into other vampires. It only takes reading books like Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire or watching TV shows like True Blood or Buffy the Vampire Slayer to understand this. However, The Strain (2014–2017) boils that process down to medical science. Rather than fangs, a tendril shoots out of the monster’s mouth and latches onto its victim. It uses this tool to suck blood, but it serves another purpose as well.

Feeding on humans injects wormlike organisms into their systems. These little parasites gradually alter their organs, transforming their targets into hairless husks. Their only purpose is to serve their higher vampire masters. Starting in New York City, this biological warfare is enough to cripple the metropolis, along with the rest of the country. Suffice it to say, these vampires are a far cry from the sexy, sparkling kind.

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It doesn’t take a doctor to know that a film called Contagion (2011) concerns a plague. The title refers to a virus called MEV-1. This illness begins in fruit bats and pigs before jumping to humans. From there, infection from fellows is easy. The disease transfers through close contact. That doesn’t just refer to skin but also sweat, saliva, and breath. The ensuing pandemic is fraught with fever, fatigue, shortness of breath, seizures, and whatever other crippling symptoms you can imagine. After a few agonizing days, the afflicted die. Worse still, the virus maintains that speed on a global scale.

The sickness severely hinders the population. Legions of people are dead before they know it, and the remainder line crowded hospitals, pandemic shelters, and dirty streets. Although MEV-1 isn’t quite enough to topple governments or bring forth an apocalypse, it does breed desperation from both professionals and civilians. No one knows how to isolate the infection or synthesize a cure. Even when the doctors engineer a vaccine, they must figure out a means of distribution. Those hurdles ground the movie in uncomfortable realism, which only makes it more unnerving.

7 Cordyceps

While The Strain grounds vampires in medical science, The Last of Us (2023– ) attempts the same for zombies. This post-apocalyptic franchise sees the Cordyceps plant fungus mutate beyond anything on record. It soon evolves enough to infect humans. Starting at their brains, it slowly morphs them into feral beasts—covered in fungal growths and focused only on killing. It goes without saying that bites can transmit the disease, but dead specimens release spores, which are arguably more effective if you breathe them. In short, the human race has no chance.

It’s not surprising that this new form of Cordyceps kills most of the planet’s population. Humanity has no idea how to combat it with science, so the only option is to fight it conventionally. This desperation turns friends and family against each other. Characters must execute their closest allies or risk getting infected themselves. Such ruthless tactics are undoubtedly isolating, but they’re the only way to survive.

6 Catriona Plague

World-hopping sounds fun, but it presents a grave danger to everyone around. If travelers aren’t careful, they can introduce foreign objects into an environment, throwing off the whole ecosystem. That’s the mistake that Ciri makes in The Witcher series (2019 – ). As she jumps between worlds, she lands in a port afflicted by bubonic plague, specifically the Black Death. The residents suffer from fevers, aches, swelling, and lack of energy. A bug from this forsaken place hitches a ride on the heroine’s clothes as she teleports back, thereby heralding disaster for her own world.

The bug then jumps to a rat on a ship bound for Ciri’s homeland, and the rest is history. The sickness spreads across the Continent with little difficulty. The denizens of this medieval fantasy realm don’t have the knowledge or tools needed to combat it. Although the illness is technically nonfictional, who knows how it could mutate in the face of Elves, Dwarves, and magic? That unpredictable lethality soon fills hospitals to the brim with the dead and dying. In the end, the losses resulting from this “Catriona Plague” rival those of the war shortly before.

5 Heart Virus

This sickness differs from other entries in that it only affects one person. That may sound like a walk in the park, but try telling that to the patient. Goku, the overarching hero of Dragon Ball, contracts this mysterious heart virus shortly after returning from his space travels. It gives him the usual fever and exhaustion, but it also puts him in agonizing pain. Not only is he unable to fight, but he can’t even get out of bed. That’s after taking the cure.

The virus on its own is enough to kill him entirely. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happens in an apocalyptic future. For perspective, Goku is among the mightiest warriors in the universe. He withstands the most terrible attacks you can imagine, yet this virus puts him down for the count. Normal folks wouldn’t stand a chance against such an illness.

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The best intentions can easily go wrong. The Simian Flu originates as a cure. Namely, Dr. Rodman engineers it to combat Alzheimer’s, testing it on chimps to stimulate brain activity. When a test subject unexpectedly gives birth, her offspring shows immense intelligence. Unfortunately, this young chimp—dubbed “Caesar”—is soon on the receiving end of human cruelty. He retaliates by releasing an airborne version of the serum, granting similar sharpness to his fellow apes. What no one foresees is its effect on people.

The serum knocks the humans off the top of the food chain, paving the way for the modern Planet of the Apes series. The initial strain causes victims to cough up blood and eventually die. That alone eliminates most of Earth’s residents and power structures. The survivors appear to have natural immunity, but the serum is only gestating. The remaining humans eventually lose all higher brain functions, starting with their ability to speak. That downward spiral frees the apes to cage them like beasts. Oh, how the tables have turned.

3 Greyscale

This dermatological disease is hard to contract and harder to get rid of. Introduced in A Song of Ice and Fire, Greyscale can only transfer through direct contact. That’s a simple prospect in itself. When a swarm of infected individuals attacks you, though, it becomes difficult to dodge. Thankfully, you can easily avoid these mobs by staying out of the areas that they frequent. Such caution is in your best interest.

Greyscale equates to slow and steady suffering. It’s generally nonfatal, but it causes children to become malformed as they grow. For adults, the sickly scales spread across the body, gradually driving the patient insane. Victims have one hope for salvation, but it only brings further pain. Treatment involves carving and peeling the scales off. This process is downright excruciating. It essentially amounts to skinning a person alive. Given that degree of torture, Greyscale is more hazardous than the titular Game of Thrones.

2 Geostigma

As foreign organisms, aliens run a clear risk of infecting humans. Few invaders are more malevolent than Jenova. This extraterrestrial woman touches down prior to Final Fantasy VII. After being an unwilling test subject, her dissected corpse falls into the Lifestream: the mystical liquid infused into the planet and its people. That unholy mixture has gruesome consequences down the line.

Advent Children (2005), FFVII’s film sequel, introduces Geostigma. This sickness arises from the infected Lifestream, which spreads to the planet’s innumerable residents. Alien matter infiltrates their bodies, causing their systems to fight back with antibodies. The catch is that the bodies overcompensate and collapse. Victims then develop sores and excrete black goo before finally dying. Although anyone can contract Geostigma, it ravages the world’s children first due to their weaker constitutions. Of course, another illness inflicts much more damage in that respect.

1 Infertility Epidemic

Sometimes, the simplest problems are the most difficult to solve. Children of Men (2006) provides ample evidence of that sentiment. The Infertility Epidemic does exactly what the name suggests. It renders humans unable to produce children. While the story never states the exact cause of this disease, it actively explores the ramifications. Needless to say, they are terrifying.

Society completely collapses thanks to this single issue. Extremists incite their followers to violent tactics, and governments enact totalitarian regimes to maintain control. Meanwhile, everyday people sink into hopelessness. Human beings, like any animal, have an instinct to procreate. Taking that away not only robs them of purpose, but it also prevents the species from continuing. The inevitable endpoint is extinction. That fact makes this sickness deadlier than any other.

Welcome to a tour of the ten most horrifying medical cases ever recorded – a chilling reminder of why we’re glad to live in the age of antibiotics, sanitation, and modern dentistry. These stories, each more grotesque than the last, show how medicine once resembled a horror show.

10 Exploding Teeth

Remember the last time you endured a bad toothache? Now imagine that agony multiplied a hundredfold, so intense you lose touch with reality and behave like a rabid animal while your dentist watches helplessly. That was the fate of a handful of patients in the 19th and early 20th centuries, whose infected teeth apparently cured themselves by exploding.

In 1817, Reverend DA of Springfield suffered a toothache so severe he acted like “an enraged animal,” banging his head against the ground and biting a fence post for relief. The pain only worsened. One morning his wife heard a gun‑shot‑like crack; moments later the reverend swaggered in, declaring himself cured. His tooth had detonated, hurling calcium fragments across the room.

Several similar cases exist. Although most patients felt better after the burst, the explosion could itself be damaging. In 1871 a woman was knocked off her feet by a blast so loud she briefly went deaf. Exploding teeth mysteriously vanished in the 1920s, likely because the metal alloys used in older fillings sometimes produced hydrogen gas, which could build up and cause a miniature explosion.

9 Gigantic And Painful Intestinal Worms

Tapeworms still plague people today, but they’re mere minnows compared with some monstrous parasites documented in the 18th century. In 1782, a medical journal reported a young man who passed a worm half a meter long (1.5 ft) and four centimeters thick (1.5 in). By “passed,” we mean he needed a friend to help yank the creature from his rear.

The worm resembled an earthworm with jointed segments, filled with dark, sticky blood, and sported a duck‑bill‑like jaw. Dark chocolate in color, it had burrowed inside his intestines for days, causing excruciating pain. Clearly, it wasn’t a typical tapeworm.

A similar 16th‑century account comes from Italian goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini, who wrote that he once vomited a 13‑centimeter (5‑inch) worm covered in long, dark hairs. No one could identify the creature.

8 Dancing Plagues

Mass hysteria occurs when groups act irrationally on a massive scale. Famous examples include the Loudun possessions and the Salem witch trials. Occasionally, hysteria intersected with medicine to create bizarre “plagues.” One of the creepiest was the dancing plague of 1518.

The outbreak began on a hot July day in Strasbourg when a woman started dancing in the street and couldn’t stop. Days later she was still dancing, apparently no longer in control of her body. Soon, at least 100 others joined, discovering they too could not cease the compulsion.

Eyewitnesses reported terrified victims begging to be stopped. Within days, people were literally dancing themselves to death. The town’s solution was bizarre but effective: set up halls and stages, hire musicians to play nonstop, and force the afflicted to dance until exhaustion. By September, the dancers—now numbering 400—were finally spent, and the plague ended.

This was the last dancing plague in Europe, but not the first. Records show at least ten earlier outbreaks, including a 1374 event that swept across present‑day Belgium, Luxembourg, and northern France.

7 Bladder Beetles

Few things are as unsettling as hearing a doctor announce “prostate cancer.” Even worse is discovering a living creature crawling out of the end of one’s penis. In 1838, a 23‑year‑old man with a urinary tract infection experienced exactly that.

After days of bleeding and pus‑filled urination, he became unable to pee. Doctors rushed to fetch a catheter, but before it arrived, the problem resolved itself in the most horrific way: a pea‑sized beetle burst from his penis, followed by a heavy discharge of pus and urine. Examination revealed the beetle was the blockage.

Terrifyingly, such cases were not isolated. Former BBC journalist Thomas Morris has chronicled many similar incidents on his blog, including a boy who expelled sixteen slugs from his urethra.

6 Sleepy Sickness

If you were whisked back to 1918, the Spanish flu would dominate your mind, but another, less lethal yet equally baffling disease lurked in the shadows: encephalitis lethargica, commonly called sleepy sickness. While the Spanish flu killed up to 50 million people—twice as many as World War I—sleepy sickness claimed about one million lives.

Scientists now believe the condition stemmed from a rare strain of Streptococcus bacteria. At the time, physicians observed people falling into a narcolepsy‑like sleep, with some never waking. Victims didn’t die outright; instead, many slipped into a coma‑like state, unable to control their bodies yet retaining brain activity.

Millions worldwide suffered this horrific fate. Some patients were “awakened” with drug treatments in 1969, but many relapsed into the sleepy state after only weeks. Although the disease has largely faded, occasional cases still appear, and a major resurgence appears unlikely.

5 Eye Spiders

The phrase “eye spiders” alone is enough to send shivers down many spines. In 1840, Dr. Lopez of Alabama was summoned to Charleston for a gruesome case. The night before, a patient felt something drop on her face while sleeping. By morning, she awoke with a severely swollen eye, and upon examination, a mucus‑coated spider was discovered living inside the cavity.

The horror didn’t stop there. Days later, Dr. Lopez returned to find more spiders in the same eye socket. Over the following weeks, he visited daily, extracting tiny, mucus‑covered spiders each time. Locals eventually believed the original spider had laid an egg sac behind the eyeball, causing the ongoing infestation.

Fortunately, Dr. Lopez soon realized the situation was implausible. The woman was later deemed mentally ill, likely inserting the spiders herself for attention. Still, the 19th century was fertile ground for extracting animals from bodies—stories abound of a boy who vomited millipedes and another who reportedly expelled a live mouse from his intestine.

4 Ice Age Superbugs

Antibiotic‑resistant superbugs are a modern nightmare, but research shows they may have ancient roots. Evidence suggests these Darwinian monsters spent millennia in what is now Canada, decimating Ice Age peoples long before humans invented antibiotics.

In 2011, Scientific American reported that antibiotic‑resistant bacteria were found deep within the ice outside Dawson City, Yukon. These microbes were at least 30,000 years old and had never seen sunlight. Thousands of years before humanity discovered antibiotics, Actinobacteria already possessed defense mechanisms to thwart them.

While these ancient superbugs didn’t change the fate of Ice Age humans—bugs killed them regardless—the finding hints that if you ever travel back via a DeLorean or TARDIS, you’d want to steer clear of prehistoric Canada.

3 Laughing Plagues

The dancing plague may belong to centuries past, but a more recent instance of mass hysteria occurred in 1962 Tanganyika (now Tanzania). That year, a laughing epidemic broke out, causing people to burst into uncontrollable laughter that persisted for months.

Victims laughed so intensely they injured themselves; schools were shut, villages quarantined, and when the epidemic finally faded, roughly 1,000 individuals had laughed themselves into illness. Those affected described a sensation of “things moving about in their heads,” as if an alien force controlled them.

Today, experts attribute the phenomenon to mass hysteria, but the sheer absurdity of a continent-wide giggle fit remains chilling.

2 Vomiting Up A Fetus

In 1835, French physician Dr. Ardoin, practicing in Greece, documented a shocking case: a young boy named Demetrius Stamatelli vomited a fetus. The gruesome detail deepens when you realize the expelled baby was likely his own parasitic twin.

Parasitic twins occur when one twin absorbs the other in utero. Usually the absorbed twin remains unnoticed until death, sometimes requiring surgical removal if complications arise. The 1830s Greek incident stands alone as the only recorded instance of someone apparently vomiting their twin.

Demetrius suffered severe abdominal pain, teetering on the brink of death. Only after a violent vomiting fit did his symptoms subside—the dead twin emerged from his mouth, apparently attached by an umbilical cord. Dr. Ardoin found the case both horrifying and fascinating.

1 The Plague Of Athens

Among all the gruesome and mysterious plagues that have plagued humanity, none rivals the Plague of Athens (430‑426 BC) for sheer horror and enigma. The cradle of democracy transformed into a theater of gore, with victims displaying red‑stained eyeballs, bloody tongues, decaying throats, and ulcerated skin.

According to the sole surviving eyewitness account by Thucydides, death typically followed a devastating bout of diarrhea. Up to two‑thirds of Athens’ population perished, including many of its greatest leaders and generals.

Modern scholars remain divided on the culprit. Some argue it was the earliest known Ebola outbreak, while others suggest cholera, bubonic plague, typhoid, or even measles. The mystery endures, cementing the Plague of Athens as one of history’s most terrifying medical enigmas.

Fashion fads are like any fad, really. Some of it works. Some of it doesn’t. And you don’t know which of those two categories the one you’re participating in now will end up falling into until enough time has passed for society to gain some perspective. Before you dive into the latest trend, though, keep in mind that for every pair of blue jeans or high top sneakers, there are a million things that don’t stand the test of time. So if you want to actually enjoy looking at pictures of yourself years from now, take a lesson from the following disasters…

10. Zoot Suits (1940s)

In the 1940s, zoot suits symbolized rebellion and individuality for the minority youths who wore them. So much so, in fact, that they actually rioted when the government tried to ban them, arguing that the absurd amount of fabric required for their manufacture was depriving the Army of valuable war material.

Cool facts! You know what’s not cool? The zoot suit itself. Look at this goofy monstrosity and mock it.

9. Rompers for Men (1970s)

The ’70s are a good decade to illustrate the following point: the more a new fashion trend deviates from the standard jeans/t-shirts/dress, or skirt/boots or sneakers/tailored jacket look, the more likely it is to not stand the test of time.

Variations on the classics likely won’t be too embarrassing down the road, but wild departures like the wide-collared onesies for grown men advertised in mid-’70s fashion mags will likely force you to trash any and all photographic evidence you ever partook. 

8. Shoulder Pads (1980s)

If brevity is the soul of wit, then just enough clothing worn well is the soul of fashion. Maybe that sounded better in my head. The point is: women in the 1980s did not understand this self-evident truth.

Shoulder pads and bat-wing sleeves and other gratuitous add-ons to shirts and jackets that simply did not need them were ridiculous perversions of the more subtle 1940s shoulder pads, because everything in the 1980s was a ridiculous perversion of something. That was part of the fun. It’s also the reason no one who lived through that decade will ever admit it in public.

7. Mullets (1980s)

“Business in the front, party in the back?” Try “thank you for the application, but we are not hiring right now.”

We will say this, though: few could’ve imagined that the mullet, popularized by Irish rock star and liberal philanthropist Bono, would end up on the scalps of beer-guzzling Appalachians who soak their feet in kiddie pools. How did this happen? We don’t care enough to find out. But we imagine it has something to do with Def Leppard’s Joe Elliot giving the look a blue jeans appeal and country crooner Billy Ray Cyrus taking it from there. Quite a storied history for one of the most regrettable, worthless hairstyles of all time. 

6. Hair Metal… Everything (1980s)

Men dressing like women might come off as rather woke now, but we promise you, social commentary and LGBTQ rights weren’t even on the radar of the chauvinistic, Sunset Strip slime balls who teased out their hair and smeared on the makeup to rock out to Bon Jovi in the mid ’80s. The women were just as bad. For a few months in 1986, the skies above Los Angeles were 40% Aquanet. Whole species of birds were endangered. Nirvana didn’t kill hair metal, the EPA did. We have a million of these.

But nobody said it better than Tommy Lee, who you probably know from his thoughtful contributions to The Economist: “Just because we are wearing lipstick doesn’t mean we can’t kick your ass,” he once quipped. The other members of Mötley Crüe all laughed. We did too.

5. Bang Parentheses (1990s)

We really tried to find the proper name for this dorky looking mop of a haircut, but “bang parentheses” will have to do. It really is a perfect description. It’s the haircut famously sported by Jonathan Taylor Thomas from Home Improvement and some of the kids from Saved By The Bell. Leonardo DiCaprio wore it too, around the time Titanic was released.

Now it lives on in those haircut idea books at the salon your local Karen goes to. When you first saw them in there, you thought maybe I could pull this off. Now you think, how the hell has no one thrown this book out yet?

4. Excessively Baggy Clothes (1990s)

Maybe the current trend of slim fit, tailored clothing will one day be seen as an overcorrection, but nobody can look at poncho-sized T-shirts draped over jeans that were four sizes too big and honestly think it looks as cool now as it did in the mid ’90s.

It’s a wonder anyone could even function when they had 40 pounds of fabric to wrestle with just to find their wallet. Hang on. We know it’s buried in here somewhere. Sir? Can you hold this fistful of shirt while we look? Thanks. 

3. Frosted Tips (1990s/2000s)

Which trash can did we toss mullets and glam metal coifs into? Don’t empty it yet, because we’ve got another atrocity to deposit, courtesy of yet more cute musicians who deceived the public into thinking that you too can look as hot as Justin Timberlake by simply bleaching the top half of your greasy hair spikes.

Is there a way to tell people who do this, without breaking their hearts, that they look less like a cute member of a late-’90s boy band and more like they’re heading to Flavor Town?

2. Soul Patches (1990s/2000s)

Cute guys might sport frosted tips, but bad boys had soul patches. Guys with motorcycles and cigarettes. Guys with leather jackets and hot girlfriends. Guys who listened to cool bands like uh, Crossfade (heh) and Nickelback (snicker). Guys who are now fat, bald and goateed, who wear sleeveless Tapout shirts and shades indoors, and who yell at their kids at the gas station while their wife smokes in the pickup.

Honestly, though, the biggest question we have regarding soul patches, which are so small it hardly seems worth the effort to maintain and trim them, is “why?”

1. Trilbys (2000s/2010s)

God help us. Sometimes fashion trends fail so spectacularly, you don’t even need hindsight to see it. Now before we continue, keep in mind that fedoras and trilbys are often-confused cousins, not twins. Fedoras are the wider-brimmed, classic Hollywood-era hats you’ve seen paired with chiseled jaws and suit jackets. We have no problem at all with the properly applied fedora. Trilbys, on the other hand, have no fashionable utility whatsoever. They weren’t even slightly cool, at any point in time, in any part of the world.

In fact, they’re so uncool that it makes everyone around the wearer embarrassed, as if future anthropologists will spot one while digging up an ancient shopping mall, and think all of us wore wolf t-shirts and tried to seduce uncomfortable women by bragging about our sword collections. For the sake of our collective dignity, please deposit your trilby in the nearest wastebasket and beg for forgiveness. 

BONUS!: Clear Shoes (2010s)

We’re not sure how these got on the list. They will be cool forever.