History Main / TelevisuallyTransmittedDisease

* Inverted once on ''DoogieHowserMD''. A celebrity came in to the hospital after a trip through third-world countries with an illness none of the doctors recognized immediately. They did tests for all sorts of unusual diseases, until a nurse recognized it as measles, which wasn't recognized solely because immunizations for the disease are nigh-ubiquitous.

* Played realistically on ''GoldenGirls''. Dorothy was struck with a strange illness that left her perpetually lethargic. She had gone to several doctors and traveled to a specialist in New York, only to be told she was just getting old and should do something new like get her hair done or some nonsense. It was only after a 5th (?) opinion that she was diagnosed with the rare Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. This episode was inspired by one of the produces coming down with this same disorder.

* Amnesia: ''Very'' dramatic, and lets the character start out as ignorant as the audience about what's going on. In comedies, almost any [[TapOnTheHead blow to the head]] causes, and cures, amnesia. Doesn't work ''at all'' the way it's portrayed in fiction.
** And it ALWAYS has to be retrograde amnesia.
*** [[Film/{{Memento}} Not]] [[FiftyFirstDates always.]]

* [[TourettesShitcockSyndrome Tourette's Syndrome]]: Because people swearing randomly is funny, even though less than 10% of people with Tourette's ''actually'' swear uncontrollably.

* Inverted in ''Series/{{Scrubs}}''. JD diagnoses a patient with Kuru, which is confined to Papua New Guinea and transmitted by cannibalism. He's mocked mercilessly by his attending and the patient himself, and the disease turns out to be mundane. Even so, most patients on ''{{Scrubs}}'' have something fairly obscure, if not actually rare.
** Dr. Cox actually fully describes this trope in his rant, saying that the patient is probably just experiencing ordinary disease with unordinary symptoms. He's right.
** And also averted in ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'', where a news broadcast goes out about two Hepatitis A cases. The hospital is then crushed with people thinking they have it.

* ''GreysAnatomy''. This could take a while...

** Separation of adult siamese twins (played by the [[CheapSeats Sklar brothers]]) who are joined at the spine and both in love with the same woman. The episode actually went to great pains to point out how completely impossible the procedure was. [[MillionToOneChance Then they succeeded in doing it.]]

** TruthInTelevision. Most doctors graduating in the past few decades have never seen an actual live case of measels.

* Genetic mosaicism. Has a variety of implications, ranging from brain problems (''Series/{{House}}'') to multiple sets of DNA making criminal activity tough to catch (''{{CSI}}'').

-->-- Common medical saying. In TV Land, it might as well be a nucklavee.

* JeffFoxworthy hangs a lampshade on it, retelling his wife's over-reaction every time she sees an article about a disease on 60 Minutes.

* Overlapping with Theater, in RepoTheGeneticOpera, we have a spectacular case of Munchausen By Proxy. It's all the more over-the-top since the individual responsible [[spoiler: is a physician]] and the case has lasted for [[spoiler: seventeen years!]]

* As stated under Film, in RepoTheGeneticOpera, we have a spectacular case of Munchausen By Proxy. It's all the more over-the-top since the individual responsible [[spoiler: is a physician]] and the case has lasted for [[spoiler: seventeen years!]]

* Münchhausen's Syndrome: Not that common, but the inherent drama of a patient fooling their doctors has made it a staple of TV. The "by proxy" variant where a parent sickens (or even ''murders'') their children for their doctor's attention, is even rarer, more dramatic, and thus more likely to show up on television.

** Was also averted in one episode. House and Cuddy were on an airplane returning from a conference about rare infectious diseases. When a passenger got sick, Cuddy thought it was one of those diseases, and it seemed she might be right when another passenger displayed similar symptoms. Despite the symptoms, the passengers had entirely different things wrong with them. [[spoiler: The first had been scuba diving and surfaced too quickly, the other was pregnant.]]

*** [[{{Memento}} Not]] [[FiftyFirstDates always.]]

** TruthInTelevision, most doctors graduating in the past few decades have never seen a actual live case of measels.
* Manages to make its way into ''Series/{{Mash}}'' occasionally, even though they are in a war zone. Its mostly {{averted|Trope}}, though. The most "uncommom" diseases that rolled through the 4077th were hemorrhagic fever and malaria, and in the malaria episode Klinger and another corpsman both had a reaction to the anti-malarial medication being issued. Such a reaction is TruthInTelevision and was unknown at the time (people of African descent were known to have a reaction to the medication, but people of Arab descent like Klinger were ''not'', until it started showing up).

*** This one has also happened in real life; Google "uterys didelphys" if you like. The most recently reported case was in 2009, in a woman with two uteri and two vaginas.

-->-- Common medical saying. In TV Land, it might as well be an octopus.

* Amnesia: ''Very'' dramatic, and lets the character start out as ignorant as the audience about what's going on. In comedies, almost any blow to the head causes, and cures, amnesia. Doesn't work ''at all'' the way it's portrayed in fiction.

*** [[FiftyFirstDates Not always.]]

* Porphyria: A metabolic disorder that turns your skin light-sensitive and your urine deep red. Tends to turn up in the Halloween episodes of medical shows, as the former effect has led to its association with [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampirism]].

* ''TheSimpsons'':

* Inverted in ''{{Scrubs}}''. JD diagnoses a patient with Kuru, which is confined to Papua New Guinea and transmitted by cannibalism. He's mocked mercilessly by his attending and the patient himself, and the disease turns out to be mundane. Even so, most patients on ''{{Scrubs}}'' have something fairly obscure, if not actually rare.

** And also averted in ''{{Scrubs}}'', where a news broadcast goes out about two Hepatitis A cases. The hospital is then crushed with people thinking they have it.

* [[FeelNoPain Congenital Insensitivity to Pain]]: An extremely rare condition, but irresistible to TV writers for both the gruesome results of not feeling pain and its metaphorical implications. Appeared on ''Series/{{House}}'', ''{{NCIS}}'' and ''GreysAnatomy'' (and the Australian hospital drama ''AllSaints''), as well as an inbred family on ''{{The X-Files}}''.

* Manages to make its way into ''Series/{{Mash}}'' occasionally, even though they are in a war zone. Its mostly {{averted|Trope}}, though.

** Examples of gonadal and tissue mosaicism and tetragametic chimeras (people whose bodies are the result of two embryos with different genomes fusing together at an early stage) may be more common than we think, even in humans (primarily because tests are rarely administered for it). Blaschko lines and patches on the skin or [[MismatchedEyes eyes of different color]] are a visible indicator of chimerism.

* [[FeelNoPain Congenital Insensitivity to Pain]]: An extremely rare condition, but irresistible to TV writers for both the gruesome results of not feeling pain and its metaphorical implications. Appeared on both ''Series/{{House}}'', ''{{NCIS}}'' and ''GreysAnatomy'' (and the Australian hospital drama ''AllSaints''), as well as an inbred family on ''{{The X-Files}}''.

* Manages to make its way into ''{{MASH}}'' occasionally, even though they are in a war zone. Its mostly {{averted|Trope}}, though.

*** This is persistent sexual arousal syndrom, a real condition that they both underplay (the woman in the show experiences under ten a day, where real-world cases have the woman experiencing hundreds) and demean her with all of the usual "lucky sod" reactions. Yes, because spontaneously having orgasms against your will when you may even be actively fighting against it in a manner that will likely make it impossible to form or maintain a romantic relationship is just what the doctor ordered.