History Main / PlagueEpisode

* Appears in Season 6 of ''Series/StargateSG1'', when the cast investigates an [[NeglectfulPrecursors Ancient]] woman found frozen but alive in Antarctica. Unbeknownst to them, she's carrying a disease that's extremely lethal to modern humans. Fortunately she has healing powers and is able to save the main characters, but in the process weakens herself enough for the disease to kill her.
** Later extended across an entire story arc in the postscript seasons, when the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Ori]] send a plague to afflict worlds that don't worship them. The plague spreads like wildfire through the galaxy, including Earth, before the main characters are able to devise a cure. They speculate that this plague may be related to the one above, since the Ancients and Ori were arch-enemies.

[[caption-width-right:350:With 13 Louds packed into 1200 square feet, when someone gets sick, it spreads like the plague.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:"With 13 Louds packed into 1200 square feet, when someone gets sick, it spreads like the plague."]]

[[caption-width-right:350:With 13 Louds packed into 1200 square feet, when someone gets sick, it spreads like the plague.]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s1e25b_clyde_enters_the_living_room.png]]

->'''Violet:''' Wasn't there a masked ball in Paris when cholera broke out? Half the guests were dead before they left the ballroom.
->'''Robert:''' Thank you, Mama. That's cheered us up no end.

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** In the eighth season episode "Heal Thyself", Col. Potter, Winchester and several of the nurses are stricken with the mumps (this being [[ScienceMarchesOn before a vaccine was readily available), which leads them to bring in Capt. Steve Newsome, a surgeon from Tokyo. Unfortunately, while Newsome comes off as TheAce at first (he used to be a combat surgeon), the endless [=OR=] sessions wear him down, turning him into a [[BrokenAce broken ace]].

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!!!Examples:

* ''Fanfic/DungeonKeeperAmi'': In "Corruption?", the Dark Gods infect Ami's dungeon with an uncurable magical plague, only curable by pacifying them with HumanSacrifice [[spoiler:or LifeEnergy.]]

* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'': One episode has the expedition contracting a virus local to the Pegasus galaxy. It doesn't debilitate them in the traditional sense (swathes of people sick in bed), it just causes memory loss. The only ones not affected are Teyla and Ronan, who are both native to Pegasus and therefore immune. It falls to them to gather the ingredients of and manufacture a cure.

* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': "Sick Day" is a low-key version of this. Kim catches her twin brothers' cold and goes off on a mission to protect a machine Drakken wants. She unintentionally give the cold to Shego who gives it to Ron and later Drakken and Killigan catching it. Ironically, when they give the machine (which ended up accidentally broken in the scuffles) everyone wanted back to the scientists and ask them what its purpose was, they reveal it was meant to cure the common cold.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The episode "Marge In Chains" begins with Homer (and numerous other Springfielders) buying an orange juicer from Osaka after seeing an infomercial, but an employee working at the factory has the flu, giving it to everyone in Springfield who ordered a juicer, who subsequently end up spreading it to most of the rest of the town's population.

* ''WesternAnimation/CraigOfTheCreek'' has [[Recap/CraigOfTheCreekS1E23TheLastKidInTheCreek "The Last Kid of the Creek"]], where Kit ends up WorkingThroughTheCold instead of closing down the Trading Tree while she's sick, and ends up spreading her illness to all the other kids of the creek through the food she trades. Craig is the only kid who passed up on food, and thought that he had been cursed when he found himself to be the only kid at the creek the next day.

This trope most frequently appears in historical or sci-fi settings. In a PeriodPiece or CostumeDrama, ThePlague in question will be known by an old-fashioned name that has since been replaced with a more clinical term. The disease is [[InfectionScene identifiable]] by an [[SicknessEqualsRedness unusually red complexion]] or an IncurableCoughOfDeath, followed by a high fever, extreme fatigue, and [[NightmareSequence nightmarish]] delirium. It will be a disease that has either been completely eradicated in modern times or is easily preventable through vaccines and proper hygiene. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a resurgence of some of these story beats to more contemporary series, and they can be [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] or PlayedForLaughs in comedic and kid-friendly series. In sci-fi or fantasy settings, the plague may manifest itself with more unusual symptoms, at times a different way in each patient. A few characters may have more up-to-date knowledge of the nature of the disease, but they'll probably need to explain it to other characters who don't.

* ''{{ComicBook/Futurama}}'': In the comic "A Cure for the Common Clod", Fry gets a virus from an alien woman. It just manifests as cold-like symptoms in him, but when he [[InfectionScene sneezes on]] Leela, Hermes, and Amy, it makes them regress to a primal state. Then, he falls into the aqueduct, infecting the majority of the New New Yorkers.

** In "The Naked Now", Tasha Yar comes down with a strange disease that soon spreads to the rest of the cast via touch. It has different symptoms for every character: Yar and Dr. Crusher get horny, Geordi wishes he wasn't blind, Wesley becomes bossy and overconfident, and even Data gets afflicted and acts loopy and wants to play games.
** In "Angel One", everyone except for Crusher (who was careful enough to avoid it), Tasha Yar, Riker, and Picard (who were down on a planet) comes down with a virus that makes them cough, sneeze, and behave lethargically. Crusher manages to cure it after finding out that [[spoiler:it spreads via smell]].

It's one thing for a single character in a series to [[SickEpisode spend an episode in bed with an illness]]. It's easy to smile at their red nose and whiny demands for soup. However, in a certain time and place, a sick episode can be [[PlayedForDrama quite different]]. Between [[TheDungAges poor plumbing]] and [[MedicalHorror limited medical advancement]], or simple unfamiliarity with the strange new world being explored, it's much easier for illness to spread--and for at least one [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth beloved or at least well-liked]] character, it may prove permanently crippling or even lethal.

This trope most frequently appears in historical or sci-fi settings. In a PeriodPiece or CostumeDrama, ThePlague in question will be known by an old-fashioned name that has since been replaced with a more clinical term. The disease is [[InfectionScene identifiable]] by an [[SicknessEqualsRedness unusually red complexion]] or an IncurableCoughOfDeath, followed by a high fever, extreme fatigue, and [[NightmareSequence nightmarish]] delirium. [[LethalDiagnosis It will be a disease that has either been completely eradicated in modern times or is easily preventable through vaccines and proper hygiene. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a resurgence of some of these story beats to more contemporary series, and they can be [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] or PlayedForLaughs in comedic and kid-friendly series. In sci-fi or fantasy settings, the plague may manifest itself with more unusual symptoms, at times a different way in each patient. A few characters may have more up-to-date knowledge of the nature of the disease, but they'll probably need to explain it to other characters who don't.

Once identified]], [[InstantIllness the patients' symptoms worsen steadily]] until the end of the episode, by which point the plague has abated and everyone is on the mend. The disease is typically already known to at least a few cast members, but they know little about how to avoid it. Because the disease spreads so rapidly, [[DwindlingParty there will be very few people]] available to care properly for those who fall ill. Expect characters who are well to spend a lot of time tending to characters who are sick, contracting the illness in the process and then spreading it further. [[DiseasePreventionAesop Never expect handwashing.]] Multiple named characters will contract it, and their symptoms can become very severe, but PlotArmor will usually be enough to spare the more central characters. You will most likely hear a doctor remark that a patient will live "if they last the night."

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* ''[[WesternAnimation/VivaPinata Viva Piñata]]'': In "Sick Day", almost everyone on Piñata Island comes down with a cold that makes them shoot candy out of their noses. This makes them unfit to be sent to parties, which inspires Fergy to catch it. However, he is unable to catch a cold despite acting as a nurse for dozens of sick piñatas while doing everything he can to get sick from them and is stuck carrying out his patients' endless requests.