History Main / TerrifiedOfGerms

* Iggy from ''ComicStrip/DogsOfCKennel''.

* Spotless [=McPartland=], in Dick Cavalli's ''ComicStrip/{{Winthrop}}''.

* ''Series/{{The Boys|2019}}'': Annie notes in season 2 that Mother's Milk suffers from OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder). [[spoiler:Season 3 reveals that these tics are a result of the trauma he sustained from seeing his grandfather get killed by Soldier Boy.]]

* ''Series/{{The Boys|2019}}'': Mother's Milk suffers from OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder).

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'''s eponymous character, Adrian Monk, to the extent that he uses wipes every time he shakes hands with someone, and gets highly distressed (well, more than usual, anyway) if somehow prevented from doing so.

* Howie Mandel. This is why he never shakes hands-on ''Series/DealOrNoDeal'' or ''Series/AmericasGotTalent'' and is apparently the reason he shaves his head.

* The appropriately-named henchman "Germs" in the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' two-parter "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE20FeatOfClayPart1 Feat of Clay: Part 1]]/[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE21FeatOfClayPart2 Part 2]]". He opens doors using a handkerchief and is visibly squicked at going to a hospital. Batman [[FlawExploitation exploits this]] entertainingly when interrogating him, threatening him with a jar he claims contains an incurable disease. Clayface leaves him practically catatonic after binding and ''gagging'' the little creep with some of his clay body.

Known to psychologists as "mysophobia"[[note]]This fear specifically covers the fear of dirt, pathogens and contamination, but is often simplified in popular culture to just the fear of germs[[/note]] and to others as "germophobia", this trope describes characters who have a crippling fear of germs. This is one of the common symptoms of UsefulNotes/ObsessiveCompulsiveDisorder and a phobia that, in fact, more or less affects most people. We are instinctively afraid of all things that are by definition highly contagious (like rotting corpses or waste), and for a good reason; this trope is about someone who lets this fear consume them.

Known to psychologists as "mysophobia" and to others as "germophobia", this trope describes characters who have a crippling fear of germs. This is one of the common symptoms of UsefulNotes/ObsessiveCompulsiveDisorder and a phobia that, in fact, more or less affects most people. We are instinctively afraid of all things that are by definition highly contagious (like rotting corpses or waste), and for a good reason; this trope is about someone who lets this fear consume them.

* Dave from ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama.''

* ''Series/TheBoys'': Mother's Milk suffers from OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder).

* The appropriately-named henchman "Germs" in the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' two-parter "Feat of Clay". He opens doors using a handkerchief and is visibly squicked at going to a hospital. Batman [[FlawExploitation exploits this]] entertainingly when interrogating him, threatening him with a jar he claims contains an incurable disease. Clayface leaves him practically catatonic after binding and ''gagging'' the little creep with some of his clay body.

* In ''Film/BedtimeStories2008'', hotel billionaire Barry Nottingham is [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure a perfectly nice, friendly authority figure]], but is utterly terrified of germs, to the point where when Skeeter needs to talk with him in his hotel suite, Nottingham insists they converse in near-total darkness simply because germs produce 80% faster in light. [[spoiler:By the end of the film, Skeeter manages to help him out of it, to the point where in the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue, Nottingham [[{{Irony}} had decided to go to medical school and became a school nurse.]]]]

** In its sequel, ''The Naked Sun'', an Earthman visits Solaria, a Spacer world. They build him a house and he learns that they'll destroy it after he leaves the planet. However, it is stated that disease is not the matter here -- Solaria is considered fringe even by Spacer standards, and it is unthinkable for any of the planet's residents to tolerate another person in the same house.

They're wriggling and raging like worms,\\