History Main / TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed

->'''[[Series/TheSopranos Tony Soprano]]'' and friends discuss colleague who was recently outed.

** Website/YouTube demonetized videos for simply ''alluding to'' COVID-19, so many content creators skirt around it.

* There's an autobiography (in graphic novel form) called ''Stitches'', about this guy's crapsack childhood. At one point his parents don't tell him that he has and is about to undergo surgery for throat cancer. He finds out by accident a while later, and when he asks why he wasn't told they tell him it's because he "didn't need to know."

* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/329450 Bolt out of the Blue]]'', a ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' fanfic by [=RaceUlfson=], two characters contract pepperpox. It is shown to cause high fever, headache, sore throat, no appetite, aches, and little red spots on the skin, as well as being very damaging to unborn fetuses. This makes it a slightly more serious version of real-life virus rubella or German measles. There is even a vaccine for it in the story, just like in real life, that is very effective but some people choose not to get, just like in real life.

* At the end of ''Film/ForrestGump'', Jenny tells Forrest that she's "sick". It's never said what she had, only that it's a virus and was terminal. Given the disapproving tone surrounding Jenny's Bohemian lifestyle outside of Forrest's orbit, and that Jenny could be seen as experiencing the "bad side" of decades versus Forrest's hopeful one, it was often assumed the 1980s setting meant it would be AIDS. An especially sad case as Jenny was still incredibly unsure of herself when she left Forrest the second time before Forrest Jr. was born, and a relapse occurred during their life apart. Also leads to some complaints that verge on RealityIsUnrealistic since the fact that neither Forrest nor their son seems to be infected can happen if an infected person is careful, and straight men are at low (not zero) risk of infection through sex. The worst part is that Jenny exhibits no symptoms of her disease while dying other than feeling very, very tired...making her appear to be the physically weakest human being in history.

* ''Film/{{Trainspotting}}'': Tommy has "the virus" but never knew he'd gone "full-blown". He officially died of toxoplasmosis, an opportunistic infection that attacks immuno-compromised people. Renton had to get tested for something that he may have also contracted, but fortunately for him, his test came up negative. Clearly, his disease was AIDS but it's never used in direct reference to him. HIV is brought up during Renton's GoingColdTurkey nightmare, but at no point in the film is it stated directly that Tommy has, or that Renton doesn't have AIDS.

* A 19th-century French story where (mentioned in passing) an Englishwoman goes and deliberately gets infected so as to sleep with Napoleon and give him the disease. (It doesn't work.) The disease part is very quickly glossed over, but it's pretty obvious what it is they're talking about.

* At one point in ''The Tragedy of Y'' (by Creator/ElleryQueen), the York family doctor lets amateur detective Drury Lane read the family medical history, specifically all the parts that talk about the positive [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassermann_test Wasserman tests]]. The book never uses the word "syphilis". Not even when Lane gets access to those medical files by proving to the doctor that he already knew the York children had been born with the disease.

* In the second {{Literature/Flashman}} book, ''Royal Flash,'' a character is described as suffering from a "social disease." To which Flashman immediately responds, [[EuphemismBuster "You mean he's got the clap?"]]
%% * [[Literature/AChristmasCarol Tiny Tim's]] disease, to modern readers.
%% ** Researchers say it was most likely a kidney problem or rickets.

* On ''Series/{{Revolution}}'' episode “Captain Trips”, Rachel is listing off diseases that the patients have other than the manufactured one they're all suffering from, and in a real sign of what's accepted in modern society versus what's still not, she says in a normal voice that two of them have Bipolar and Epilepsy, but whispers when she says that the third woman is an Alcoholic.

* Averted in ''Sunshine'' with Satsuki's illness being leukemia, the which she dies from.

* Olivia Benson in this [[http://archiveofourown.org/works/1742411 fic]] is mentioned to be diagnosed with cancer, the which she passes away of three months later.

* Oddly inverted, along with just about everything else, in ''Film/TheRoom''. Lisa's mother says off-handedly that "I got the results of the test back. I definitely have breast cancer." Setting it up as a possible plot point. However, it is never mentioned again, and Lisa herself doesn't seem particularly affected by the news.

* Averted in ''Theatre/{{RENT}}'', where characters that have AIDS are pretty frank about it. In the film version, however, Roger and Mimi recognize each other's affliction through the medication without mentioning the name of the disease -- though it's still averted in the case of Angel and Collins, who speak about it frankly and by name.

* The 1990 ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' special ''WesternAnimation/WhyCharlieBrownWhy'' is about Linus befriending and helping a girl with leukemia. This made ''Peanuts'' be the first animated series to ever directly talk about cancer.
* As mentioned above ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' played this trope straight once but they've also averted it when Mrs. [=MacGrady=] was diagnosed with cancer.

* [[Literature/AChristmasCarol Tiny Tim's]] disease, to modern readers.
** Researchers say it was most likely a kidney problem or rickets.

* In the ''{{WesternAnimation/Arthur}}'' episode "Grandpa Dave's Memory Album," it is shown that Arthur's grandfather is suffering from memory loss, but no disease (such as Alzheimer's, dementia or brain cancer) is mentioned.

* As mentioned above ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' played this trope straight once but they've also averted it when one of the major side characters was diagnosed with cancer.

* In ''Manga/FushigiYuugiGenbuKaiden'', Mrs. Okuda is suffering from tuberculosis at the beginning of the story, though it is usually referred to as "consumption" instead of by its proper name. She and Takiko's governess wish to keep the illness a secret because the social stigma might jeopardize [[ValuesDissonance 17-year-old Takiko's]] ability to get married. (Takiko's classmates seem to know that the Okuda family moved to Morioka from Tokyo because of an illness, though they don't know all the details, and gossip constantly about it.)

* An interesting variation occurs in the ''Anime/RurouniKenshin: Seishohen'' OVA, where Kenshin [[spoiler:and later Kaoru]] suffer from an unknown disease. Fans either call it [[FanNickname "Super Tuberculosis"]] or speculate that it may be syphilis based on the symptoms, but it's likely either a specific unmentionable or one they just made up. In either case, what exactly it is never gets brought up, but seeing as it's set in late 1800s Japan this may be justified by the setting.

* 13th squad captain Jushiro Ukitake from ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' has a never-named illness that may have caused his hair to lose its color (his eyebrows are black, the rest is white), leads to him laying in bed sick a lot, and occasionally makes him cough up blood. A FanNickname of his is "Captain Tuberculosis." Tuberculosis, incidentally, is not known to dye your hair in RealLife.

* In Literature/TheBible, a woman seeks healing from UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} for an affliction that caused bleeding, that she had been suffering from for 12 years. (Incidentally, UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} was on His way to heal a 12-year-old girl who was suffering at death's door from ''another'' unnamed illness. The young girl and the older woman may or may not be related in some way.) We don't know what the affliction of the bleeding woman was, only that she had suffered from it for a long time, and that bleeding made her [[UncleanlinessIsNextToUngodliness ritually impure]] (and thus a social outcast). (It may have been [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endometriosis endometriosis]], or something like ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease, all of which are now treatable.) She reaches out and touches UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}' clothing, and He stops walking and asks who touched Him. When she reveals what she did, He commends her faith, and she is healed from her affliction. As for the young girl He was on His way to see, she died before He got there, but He brings her BackFromTheDead and cures her sickness.

** Similarly, Website/{{Facebook}} is known to put "misinformation" warnings under posts that simply ''mention'' the disease. Or vaccines.

** Website/YouTube demonetized videos for alluding to COVID-19, so many content creators skirt around it.
** Similarly, many obituaries of people who died from it deliberately left out the actual cause of death, often due to the families wanting to avoid stigma.

* During the COVID-19 pandemic:
** Youtube demonetized videos for alluding to covid 19, so many content creators skirt around it.

* In Manga/BlackJack's back story, he broke this taboo to straightforwardly tell a fellow medical student she had ovarian cancer. Overall, Black Jack tends to be very blunt about the patient's chances.

* ''Film/{{Trainspotting}}'': Tommy has "the virus" but never knew he'd gone "full-blown". He officially died of toxoplasmosis, an opportunistic infection that attacks immuno-compromised people. Renton had to get tested for something that he may have also contracted, but fortunately for him, his test came up negative. Clearly, his disease was AIDS but it's never used in direct reference to him. The HIV virus is brought up during Renton's GoingColdTurkey nightmare, but at no point in the film is it stated directly that Tommy has, or that Renton doesn't have AIDS.

* The "Mars Rays disease" from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamAGE'', which is terminal and can strike anyone living on Mars, is basically cancer. In the show, it's supposedly caused by "rays" from Mars's magnetic field, but in RealLife Mars lacks a magnetic field. That leaves it exposed to a hell of a lot of ''radiation''.

'''LEPROSY. TUBERCULOSIS. SYPHILIS. CORONAVIRUS. CANCER. AIDS. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking DIARRHEA.]]'''

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', there is a lot of characters who have vaguely described medical conditions. This is a medieval world where the local doctors just do not have the knowledge to identify diseases as we do, so all we have is symptoms. Nevertheless, the disease from which Lord Hoster Tully is dying is heavily hinted to be cancer.

* In UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar era naval novel ''Literature/EdgeOfHonor'', all senior officers and the Chief of the Boat aboard the ''USS John Bell Hood'' conspire to hide their captain’s bowel cancer diagnosis from the naval establishment, as the captain wanted to command a ship during wartime one last time before he goes. Unfortunately this cover up leads to them letting drug use run rampant throughout the crew, eventually endangering the ship.

* In ''Theatre/DeadEnd'', Martin's ex-girlfriend Francey reveals she is "sick" when he tries to kiss her on the mouth. It is only hinted at that she was forced into prostitution and dying from syphilis. (The play does describe her as "an obvious whore of the lowest class"; for [[UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode obvious reasons]], this doesn't come across so clearly in the movie.)

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'': During the final two months of the game, [[spoiler: the protagonist is sick and weak from a mystery disease that he does not mention to anyone, as they've all been afflicted with amnesia to forget the past year they spent together. As time goes on, the protagonist gets sicker. It turns out the disease is his willpower wavering, after sealing away an [[InvincibleVillain Invincible Villain]] with nothing but the power of his soul to hold it back. [[HeroicWillpower He managed to hold on and survive for two whole months (while also keeping Nyx sealed and at bay), in order to fulfill a promise he made,]] to meet his friends on the roof of the school on the day of their graduation, so they could look back on the world they saved. His friends [[RememberedTooLate remember the promise at the last second,]] and rush to meet with him. The protagonist finally succumbs to the illness, [[CruelTwistEnding just seconds before he could fulfill his promise to his friends.]]]]
** [[spoiler: If that final scene doesn't break you, [[TearJerker the credits will.]][[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-CSZDbKuL4]]]]

See also SecretlyDying (which this trope often entails), NeverSayDie, VictorianNovelDisease, IllGirl, LittlestCancerPatient, TheScottishTrope, AmbiguousDisorder, and GoodVictimsBadVictims.

Compare DiseaseByAnyOtherName, which is a disease which isn't known to the characters, but is by the audience. Contrast TheTopicOfCancer and TragicAIDSStory for the respective awkwardness and tension that mentioning such diseases by name can cause.

An example of how unpalatable even the use of the word "cancer" in other contexts is the practice of published horoscopes substituting the name "Moon Child" for the astrolgical sign of Cancer.

It's also a way for an artist to hedge their bets [[ArtisticLicenseBiology in case they got something wrong]], as they can't portray X Condition wrong if they never ''say'' it's X Condition.

Contrast IncurableCoughOfDeath, where the illness consists of symptoms that are [[JustForPun ill]]-defined and vague (and oddly convenient to the plot). In this trope, the work ''could'' identify the illness, but won't due to cultural or ethical restrictions.

* In Robert Cormier’s “The Bumblebee Flies Anyway, both Cassie and Barney refer to their illnesses (which aren’t identified but seem from their description to be cancer) as The Thing.

* Another STD example appeared on ''Series/DrQuinnMedicineWoman'', paired with GettingCrapPastTheRadar, seeing as how this was a family show airing at 8 PM. In the series first episode, prostitute Myra comes to see Dr. Mike about a "female problem". Later, Dr. Mike tells Hank, owner of the local brothel, that Myra needs to be "chaste" for several weeks. When he complains about the loss of revenue, she warns him that he'll lose a lot more if she has to treat his customers as well. In a later episode, Hank asks why Dr. Mike has been oblivious to the fact that her sister Marjorie is ill--"That husband of hers left her with more than anyone suspects". Mike realizes what the problem is and gently tells her sister, "It's not your fault, he gave it to you", then offers to give her an injection of silver nitrate in order to clear up the infection. Given the treatment mentioned, it's obvious that Marjorie's unfaithful husband has given her gonorrhea.