History Main / ThePlague

** In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', the Dominion infected an entire planet which resisted them with a plague called "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E24TheQuickening The Quickening]]" (after the final deadly stage of infection). Everyone is born with it, most die in childhood, but enough people survive to adulthood to reproduce and keep their population from entirely dying out even after a few hundred years. It has replaced all other forms of death on their planet and left their society incapable of maintaining their previous level of technology and infrastructure ([[spoiler: in large part because the disease escalates much much faster around any kind of electro-magnetic power source]]), turning what was once a space-faring civilization into something resembling the DungAges. The look on the people's faces when Dr. Bashir discovers a vaccine that will prevent future generations from being infected by inoculating them in the womb, even though he feels that he has failed because he can't save the generation that is currently infected.

* UsefulNotes/Covid19, a disease caused by the coronavirus [=SARS-CoV-2=] that originated from China when infected animals were sold in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan and was transmitted to humans when eaten, before spreading to the neighboring countries, then the other continents. As of January 9th 2021, there have been over 89 million cases and more than 1.9 million deaths attributed to this disease ([[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ the countries with the highest number of infectees being the USA, India, Brazil, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Turkey, Italy, Spain and Germany]]). Late 2020 saw the advent of vaccines against the disease, but even if they quell the pandemic without further complications, it will still go down as one of the deadliest epidemics in history.

* UsefulNotes/Covid19, a disease caused by the coronavirus [=SARS-CoV-2=] that originated from China when infected animals were sold in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan and was transmitted to humans when eaten, before spreading to the neighboring countries, then the other continents. As of January 9th 2021, there have been over 89 million cases and more than 1.9 million deaths attributed to this disease ([[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ the countries with the highest number of infectees being the USA, India, Brazil, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Turkey, Italy, Spain and Germany]]).

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* ''Manga/SevenSeeds'' has the [[spoiler: Ryugu Shelter arc]] that has a parasitoid break out, first among the cattle and finally on the humans.
* ''Manga/KingOfThorn'' has the disease Medusa, which causes victims to be TakenForGranite. The main characters are chosen by lottery to be turned into [[HumanPopsicle Human Popsicles]] until a cure is found, only to wake up AfterTheEnd with no cure in sight and in the middle of a GardenOfEvil to boot.

* The {{Gendercide}} plague Redface Pox in ''Manga/{{Ooku}}: The Inner Chambers'', that only affected males and left feudal Japan a (predominantly) LadyLand. [[spoiler: Bears are carriers for the plague, apparently.]]

* An episode of the ''Anime/Cyborg009'' 2001 series has the Cyborgs finding out that a villain wants to drop a biological bomb, containing a mortal virus that he re-discovered, over Cairo, so he can sell the cure to huge prices. So it's up to them to first find out ''what'' virus did he work with, then stop him.
* ''Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren'' has Geostigma, a painful, incurable disease caused by [[spoiler: Sephiroth infesting the Lifestream.]]
* A bad plague hits Midland soon after the Eclipse goes down in ''Manga/{{Berserk}}''. The plague is spread by rats [[spoiler:that have been possessed by Conrad, one of the God Hand]].

* [[MadScientist Vul Isen]] in ''ComicBook/{{Legacy}}'' [[spoiler: creates one to be unleashed against the galaxy]]

* The Ebola Gulf-A, a.k.a. The Clench from ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' ''Contagion'', originally unleashed in Gotham City by the Saint Duma's Order [[spoiler:but later revealed to have been created by Ra's al Ghul]]
* The [[Comicbook/XMen Legacy Virus]] killed off a few {{mutants}}. One strain of it was capable of infecting ordinary humans too; Moira [=McTaggert=] was the most well-known non-mutant victim.

* One of the members of the [[ComicBook/GreenLantern Green Lantern Corps]] is actually a sentient smallpox virus named Leezle Pon, who stays out of meetings because it would infect the other Green Lanterns. The Sinestro Corps, on the other hand, has its own sentient virus known as Despotellis, who is responsible for [[spoiler:killing Kyle Rayner's mother]].
* The Hourman Virus spread by [[BigBad Solaris]] in ''ComicBook/DCOneMillion'' was particularly insidious. Caused by {{Nanomachines}}, it acted like both a biological virus and a computer virus, and could be spread to each type of victim by the other type. And it was capable of wiping out humanity in twenty-four hours.

* A subplot of the Lost Year storyline in ''ComicBook/BatwomanRebirth'' involves the investigation into a mysterious disease that's decimating the fox population of the island of Coryana.
* The backstory to the AlternateHistory of ''ComicBook/{{Chassis}}'' involves the outbreak of a virulent disease known as 'the Virus' to scientists, and as the 'Perfect Plague' during UsefulNotes/TheGreatWar. This virus forces hasty peace talks and a speedy end to the war in 1916.
* ''ComicBook/{{Killtopia}}'': A "nano-plague" has spread across the globe in the world of the comic, killing humans everywhere.
* ''ComicBook/{{Baltimore}}'' is set in an AlternateHistory where UsefulNotes/WorldWarI ends in a stalemate as a terrible [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampiric]] plague sweeps across Europe.

* In ''Film/LChangeTheWorld'', a terrorist group create a virus that is a mix of ebola and influenza, highly contagious, and quick to mutate. Naturally finding a cure before it wipes everybody out is the main plot of the movie.

* ''Film/LesMiserables2012'' mentions a plague on "At The End Of The Day". Nineteenth century France's squalid conditions make this unsurprising.

* ''Literature/ColasBreugnon'' has a plague halfway through the book. The protagonist, always carefree, accidentally catches it and nearly dies, but still keeps his cool--except for when his grand-daughter nearly dies, and when his old house and everything inside is burned down by other townspeople for fear of plague.

* In the ''Literature/FarsalaTrilogy'', a "swamp fever" that regularly decimates the Kadeshi population is mentioned. Kavi and Soraya use it to their advantage when they are captured- they promise that, if they are released, they will convince the Suud to find a cure.

* ''Literature/{{Kadingir}}'''s precuel ''The Queen of Kigal'' describes the Signishra, a disease brought upon the planet Ki by a [[SpaceClouds space cloud]] it came in contact with. Not only did the disease bring [[FishPeople one of the races]] to the brink of extinction, but to make matters worse the cloud entered a 25-year orbit, meaning [[RaceAgainstTheClock the heroes need to find a way to counter Signishra before it comes back]].

* Touched upon in Creator/OrsonScottCard's ''Literature/PastwatchTheRedemptionOfChristopherColumbus''. [[spoiler: In the original timeline, Columbus didn't go to America, but went east on a Crusade. As a result, a ruthless {{Mayincatec}} empire forms that soon encounters Portuguese sailors, develops immunities to their diseases, and proceeds to conquer an unprepared Europe-- which has no defense against the ''American'' diseases.]] An interesting reversal of how it went in our history. [[spoiler: A more benign version is spread among the new, less bloodthirsty {{Mayincatec}} and Caribbean cultures by the time-travelers in the end, giving them immunity to European diseases.]]

* The works of Max Brooks involve a virus - named "Solanum" in ''Literature/TheZombieSurvivalGuide'' and unnamed in ''Literature/WorldWarZ''. In either case, the virus is present globally - in the ''Guide'', it's present in low enough levels to escape detection by the public at large, but not so much in ''World War Z''.

* ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'': A localized typhus plague hits Walnut Grove and Hero Township in the first-season episode "Plague." There, a warehouse manager stores cornmeal inside his warehouse, but the lack of pest control allows a swarm of rats to get inside and infect the cornmeal. Several people die from the illness and others are on the brink of death as the church is used as a makeshift hospital to quarrantine and treat the ill. In the end, Charles and several farmers trace the source and burn down the warehouse.

** In "Final Appeal", the time traveler Dr. Theresa Givens testifies before the US Supreme Court in 2076 that a plague will wipe out humanity - at least the 20% that remains after the War of 2059 - in 2105. Clips from "The Vaccine" are used to depict the devastated world of 2105.

*** Also in "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS1E4Phage Phage]]" an entire alien species struck with a plague, and is forced to steal body-parts from other species. Their weapons teleport organs right out of you. Fortunately, the only major character it happens to could be kept alive until his ''lungs'' are retrieved. If you're a RedShirt you may not be so lucky - Torres and a nameless crew member are captured, and their captor comes back ''wearing the RedShirt's face'' to replace his own diseased skin.

* In TabletopGame/{{Traveller}} ''Intersteller Wars'' the Vilani not only find that they cannot cope with Terran diseases but that Terrans can. Some of them surrender just so Terran [[TheMedic Medics]] can arrive faster.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Pandemic}}'' (where you ''fight'' disease, not like in [[VideoGame/{{Pandemic}} the flash game of the same name]], where you ''are'' the disease) you have not only one, but four (or even five with the expansion) plagues.
* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' has Phyrexia, which specializes in this. There's even a keyword called infect.

* Gray Death from ''VideoGame/DeusEx''. [[spoiler: Later revealed to be a nano-mechanical virus formed by [[AncientConspiracy MJ12]] to take control of the world.]]
* EINDS from ''Fear Effect 2''.
* The entire plot of the original ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' campaign. [[spoiler:It turns out that the plague is magical in nature and designed to harvest life force that gets send to power an Ancient Evil]].

* The ''entire'' plot of ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' revolves around this - the main characters are some of the only people with natural immunity to TheVirus that turns everyone else into crazed killing machines. There is no cure - they can only run for their lives.

** And on that note, the T-Virus from Franchise/ResidentEvil.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} III'', and again in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' in a pre-expansion event, you have the plague of undeath, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a plague which turn people into undead]]. The Forsaken later successfully created the Blight, a plague capable of killing both the living ''and'' the undead.
** The Forsaken are also the result of the Scourge's Plague. As well as the majority of most undead.
** The "Corrupted Blood Plague" was an incident where players used pets to collect a debuff capable of spreading to nearby players and [=NPC=]s and then unleashed them in cities. Entire cities were depopulated. Interestingly, this incident attracted the attention of both epidemiologists and anti-terrorism units, the former because of how similar to real-life diseases the Corrupted Blood Plague spread, and the latter because quite a few infectees tried to deliberately spread the virus.
* ''VideoGame/{{PAMELA}}'' is set in a futuristic city where a horrific disease has wiped out much of the population.
* ''VideoGame/{{Pathologic}}'' is basically a survival game in an infected town.
* The ''VideoGame/TraumaCenter'' series has a man made one in the GUILT and Stigma diseases [[spoiler:(Though the latter is due to technology gone wrong)]] Trauma Team kind of follows in the tradition by having [[spoiler: the Rosalia virus, which is comparable to the Ebola virus, only deadlier and with a dose of AxCrazy. The last arc focuses on a widespread outbreak of the disease.]]
* It's small potatoes compared to the rest of the plot, but there's a plague on Omega in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' which is rapidly lethal towards everyone but vorcha and humans, the latter of which are accused of creating and spreading it. Vorcha are seen as too short-lived and unintelligent to do anything of the sort. Professor Mordin Solus, who develops a cure, believes it was created by the Collectors.

* The plague, referred to by name, is present in both ''VideoGame/{{inFAMOUS}}'' games, but is a significantly larger threat in [[VideoGame/{{inFAMOUS 2}} the second.]] [[spoiler: It's caused by ray sphere radiation, a contagious plague that's 100% lethal, but conduits are immune to it, choosing to ease nature along and create a world of superhumans or sacrificing yourself and every other superhuman to cure it is the penultimate karmic choice of the game.]]
* ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'' features a number of different bioweapons that ships with Biowar modules can deploy against enemy planets. Allowing a player to kill everyone in the colony with minimal damage to infrastructure and terraforming. A specialty of the Liir.
** Though the [[PlanetLooters Zuul]] in the first expansion are both immune to bioweapons and unable to research them.
* Plagues can show up as random events in the ''Conquests'' expansion to ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} III''. They kill a number of citizens in a city and only disappear after a certain number of turns; building certain city improvements can reduce their impact or eliminate them entirely.

* ''VideoGame/{{Pharaoh}}'': a non-specific plague is a possible disaster/divine punishment if you don't ensure good citywide health (access to physicians and clean water) or piss off Bast. It instantly kills a group of houses, and releases walkers that spread their infection across the houses they pass (though they can be stopped by apothecaries or a priestess of Bast if she's the patron god).
* In ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend'', one of the things Iwamine Shuu is doing, is creating a virus called the Charon Virus that is an airborne virus fatal to any human exposed to it.
* In ''VideoGame/MedievalIITotalWar'', cities can suffer from the plague when they grow too large, but at a certain point in the timeline, the Black Death strikes and nearly all cities have a few years of plague. It is possible for units to survive for some time while infected, allowing them to spread the plague when they conquer uninfected cities or for spies to (accidentally, ahem) introduce it to cities they infiltrate. Your economy tanks meanwhile, though it may well recover after as half your army is suddenly no longer pestering you for wages.
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'' has the town of Coffinwell afflicted by one, which turns out to be a magical curse rather than a natural illness. Once the party beats up and seals away the [[PunnyName Ragin' Contagion]] with the help of Dr. Phlegming, everyone gets better. [[spoiler:[[YouAreTooLate Except for Phlegming's wife.]]]]
* In ''VideoGame/TheSilentAge'' the reason of efficient extinction of the mankind is a type of [[spoiler:avian flu, brought from the future and amplified by the effects of TimeTravel]].
* In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', one sidequest has you find a cure for a [[LittlestCancerPatient child]] who contracted a plague from the Mole Rats in the AbandonedLaboratory of Vault 81. There's only one dose of the medicine, so if you get infected by the Mole Rats, [[SadisticChoice you're either stuck with a -10 max HP debuff for the rest of the game, or you fail the quest due to using the cure on yourself and cause the vault dwellers to hate you]].
* The [[TheBlackDeath original Plague]] and many other "lesser" epidemics are found in ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings II'', and are the focus of ''[[ExpansionPack The Reaper's Due]]''. The Black Death in particular has a way of [[DidntSeeThatComing cutting through]] the most [[GambitPileup intricate plots]] by showing up at ''exactly'' the wrong time, killing off or forcing into hiding most major individuals in the affected areas.
* ''VideoGame/{{Code 7}}'' has the "Phantom Plague". In contrast to most cases listed here, the Phantom Plague is very un-gory, quick and always 100% lethal. The very few symtoms at most a minute or two before death are mania, berserker-like behaviour and then [[spoiler: calling for "Alex"]] before simply collapsing.
* The Time Plague that drives the plot to ''VideoGame/FindTheCure!'' is an asymptomatic disease that transmits through proximity and kills its victims exactly 25 years after contracting it. The extremely long incubation period is why nobody realized what was happening before almost the entire world was already infected.
* In ''VideoGame/BloodOmenLegacyOfKain'' it's implied that Kain had escaped from his hometown due to an outbreak. After his resurrection as a vampire, he gets the chance to return there, and things are about as bad as you'd expect - the streets are littered with piles of corpses, some of which acting as obstacles to force you to take the long way underground through basements and dungeons. One of the last houses contains proof that the plague was actually [[MysticalPlague unleashed by some cultists]], although this is never commented upon by Kain or anyone else.
* The Pandyssian rat plague is a key backdrop of the original ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'', affecting every level of Dunwall society. It is extremely virulent and deadly, with several stages progressing from a simple cough and TearsOfBlood , through {{Zombie|Apocalypse}}-like state (people in this stage are referred as "weepers"), to an extremely painful death. [[spoiler:Towards the end of the game, it is revealed that the plague was introduced to Dunwall from Pandyssia on purpose by the future BigBad (back when he was just TheSpymaster), as part of a plot to KillThePoor.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Subnautica}}'' features the Khaara bacterium which [[spoiler:did quite a number on the Precursors' interstellar society after they encountered it on an unexplored world. Their reports indicate a death toll of over 140 billion across their species, and resulted in them very forcefully quarantining any planet on which the bacterium had spread. Unfortunately, the planet the game takes place on is one such planet...]]
* In ''VideoGame/GuildWars'' the human kingdom of Elona was devastated by the Scarab Plague, a disease which caused scarabs to grow ''inside'' the victim's body before erupting out and spreading to others. The Primeval Dynasty fell as a result and the great city of Fahranur, the epicenter of the plague, was sealed off permanently. In ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'' the Inquest was able to recreate the Plague only for Palawa Joko to steal it in order to unleash it on his enemies.

* The Literature/ChaosTimeline has the Black Death, happening somewhat later and spread through longer time than in our world.

** Importation of diseases to the Americas was not just one-way deal: the Europeans got syphilis as an exchange. Whilst there had been similar diseases earlier in Europe, the American strand was extremely virulent, and it killed a lot of people, and rendered even more sterile. The majority of old European Medieval noble families died out and several royal houses (Valois, Tudor, Trastamara, Rurik) became extinct. The syphilis meant also a drastic change on sexual behavior - and, unfortunately, hygiene. Since ''Treponema pallidium'' thrived in public baths and saunas, they all but disappeared in Europe. The following centuries were the real [[TheDungAges Dung Ages]], not Middle Ages.

** Several wars were decided by which army was less malnourished, disease-ridden and overall miserable. The Haitian Revolution arguably only had the outcome it did because the French Army came down with a major case of yellow fever at the worst possible time - granted Haiti had some skilled military leaders and much more to gain from winning, but still.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_virus_disease Ebola]] is a recent example. As a virus, it's innately difficult to treat and it's rare enough that there are no specific drugs for it. A vaccine that works on humans has yet to be developed. Oh, and it makes your [[BodyHorror innards dissolve into a bloody pulp that you then bleed out]]. Thankfully, it had been confined to Africa '''[[ParanoiaFuel ...had]]'''. [[note]]One confirmed person-to-person infection in the United States, and one in Spain. As of this edit, it's too soon to tell if the virus will establish itself in either place.[[/note]] An important point is that Ebola is ''so'' virulent that it kills its victims before they can get very far--it's not airborne (you need to come into contact with the bodily fluids of a visibly-infected person in order to catch it), making transmission easily prevented by proper hygiene, which tends to keep it in isolated villages (until the 2014 outbreak--which is itself ''mostly'' confined to a few desperately poor West African countries with extraordinarily weak public health systems).

* The HistoricalFiction manga ''Manga/AnatoliaStory'' has as one of its subplots a terrible plague that affected the Hitite empire. In actual history, the plague raged in Hattusha for some 20 years and killed a large portion of the population, including [[spoiler: King Suppiluiuma, King Arnuwanda, and Gassalawiya, Mursili's wife that Yuri's character is partially based upon.]]

* An episode of the ''Anime/{{Cyborg 009}}'' 2001 series has the Cyborgs finding out that a villain wants to drop a biological bomb, containing a mortal virus that he re-discovered, over Cairo, so he can sell the cure to huge prices. So it's up to them to first find out ''what'' virus did he work with, then stop him.
* Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren has Geostigma, a painful, incurable disease caused by [[spoiler: Sephiroth infesting the Lifestream.]]

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' had the [[{{Muggles}} city]] believe that Apathy Syndrome was caused by a plague.
** In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', the fog that [[spoiler:envelops Inaba by the end of the year and causes every last (non-named) inhabitant to slowly go insane with nihilism at best, or collapse in inexplicable, incurable illness at worst]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'', one sidequest has you find a cure for a [[LittlestCancerPatient child]] who contracted a plague from the Mole Rats in the AbandonedLaboratory of Vault 81. There's only one dose of the medicine, so if you get infected by the Mole Rats, [[SadisticChoice you're either stuck with a -10 max HP debuff for the rest of the game, or you fail the quest due to using the cure on yourself and cause the vault dwellers to hate you]].

* UsefulNotes/Covid19, a disease caused by the coronavirus [=SARS-CoV-2=] that originated from China when infected animals were sold in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan and was transmitted to humans when eaten, before spreading to the neighboring countries, then the other continents. As of 9 Januari 2021 there have been over 89 million cases and more than 1.9 million deaths attributed to this disease ([[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ the countries with the highest number of infectees being the USA, India, Brazil, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Turkey, Italy, Spain and Germany]]).

* UsefulNotes/Covid19, a disease caused by the {{UsefulNotes/coronavirus}} [=SARS-CoV-2=] that originated from China when infected animals were sold in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan and was transmitted to humans when eaten, before spreading to the neighboring countries, then the other continents. As of 9 Januari 2021 there have been over 89 million cases and more than 1.9 million deaths attributed to this disease ([[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ the countries with the highest number of infectees being the USA, India, Brazil, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Turkey, Italy, Spain and Germany]]).

* UsefulNotes/Covid19, a disease caused by the {{UsefulNotes/coronavirus}} [=SARS-CoV-2=] that originated from China when infected animals were sold in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan and was transmitted to humans when eaten, before spreading to the neighboring countries, then the other continents. As of 4 November 2020 there have been over 48 million cases and more than 1.2 million deaths attributed to this disease ([[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ the countries with the highest number of infectees being the USA, India, Brazil, Russia, France, Spain, Argentina, Colombia, the United Kingdom and Mexico]]).

* ''Series/TheBarrier'': The noravirus is apparently a death sentence to whoever catches and one of the story's plotlines involves looking for a cure for it. Anyone showing symptoms at a checkpoint is taken away and the CanneOrdersOverLoudspeaker are frequently reminding people to avoid forming too large groups.

* The card game ''TabletopGame/NuclearWar'' features the [=SuperGerm=] card, which moves among all of the players and attacks their populations in turn.
** Actually, that's Super''Virus'', from the expansion ''Nuclear Retaliation''. [=SuperGerm=] just kills 25 million in one shot.

* UsefulNotes/Covid19, a disease caused by the {{UsefulNotes/coronavirus}} [=SARS-CoV-2=] that originated from China when infected animals were sold in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan and was transmitted to humans when eaten, before spreading to the neighboring countries, then the other continents. As of 25 October 2020 there have been over 43 million cases and more than 1.1 million deaths attributed to this disease ([[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ the countries with the highest number of infectees being the USA, India, Brazil, Russia, France, Spain, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Peru]]).

* The Morbus Gravis from Italian comic book ''Druuna'' is the horrible degenerate mutant version. There's no known cure, although certain medicines can slow down the mutation or temporarily reverse its progress.

* UsefulNotes/Covid19, a disease caused by the {{UsefulNotes/coronavirus}} [=SARS-CoV-2=] that originated from China when infected animals were sold in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan and was transmitted to humans when eaten, before spreading to the neighboring countries, then the other continents. As of 20 October 2020 there have been over 40 million cases and more than 1.1 million deaths attributed to this disease ([[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ the countries with the highest number of infectees being the USA, India, Brazil, Russia, Spain, Argentina, Colombia, France, Peru and Mexico]]).

* UsefulNotes/Covid19, a disease caused by the {{UsefulNotes/coronavirus}} [=SARS-CoV-2=] that originated from China when infected animals were sold in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan and was transmitted to humans when eaten, before spreading to the neighboring countries, then the other continents. As of 10 October 2020 there have been over 39 million cases and more than 1.1 million deaths attributed to this disease ([[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ the countries with the highest number of infectees being the USA, India, Brazil, Russia, Spain, Argentina, Columbia, France, Peru and Mexico]]).

* UsefulNotes/Covid19, a disease caused by the {{UsefulNotes/coronavirus}} [=SARS-CoV-2=] that originated from China when infected animals were sold in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan and was transmitted to humans when eaten, before spreading to the neighboring countries, then the other continents. As of 12 August 2020 there have been over 20 million cases and more than 740,000 deaths attributed to this disease ([[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ the countries with the highest number of infectees being the USA, Brazil, India, Russia, Peru, Chile, Spain, Mexico, the United Kingdom and South Africa]]).

* Notice how often smallpox is mentioned on here? Well, humanity finally won that fight. It was the first disease for which there was a vaccination, and as it is not known to survive in non-human animals, it was actually possible to eradicate this scourge of mankind. By the late 1970s, what had once been one of the deadliest things on earth was no more.

* UsefulNotes/Covid19, a disease caused by the {{UsefulNotes/coronavirus}} [=SARS-CoV-2=] that originated from China when infected animals were sold in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan and was transmitted to humans when eaten, before spreading to the neighboring countries, then the other continents. As of 12 August 2020 there have been over 20 million cases and more than 740,000 deaths attributed to this disease ([[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ the countries with the highest number of infectees being the USA, Brazil, India, Russia, Peru, Chile, Spain, Mexico, the United Kingdom and South Africa]].)

Note: the word "plague" originally described a specific disease, TheBlackDeath. While TheBlackDeath is still called "plague", the word is now [[TropeNamer often used]] to describe [[YouKeepUsingThatWord any widespread disease]].

* [[UsefulNotes/CoronavirusDisease2019Pandemic COVID-19]], a disease caused by the coronavirus [=SARS-CoV-2=] that originated from China when infected animals were sold in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan and was transmitted to humans when eaten, before spreading to the neighboring countries, then the other continents. As of 12 August 2020 there have been over 20 million cases and more than 740,000 deaths attributed to this disease ([[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ the countries with the highest number of infectees being the USA, Brazil, India, Russia, Peru, Chile, Spain, Mexico, the United Kingdom and South Africa]].)

* The ''Tomb Raider'' movie from 2018 featured [[spoiler: a deadly contagion instead of usual supernatural events. Himiko, an ancient Japanese empress (whose Tomb is Raided in the movie) was an asymptomatic, infectious carrier for the disease, which made her people think she possessed dark magical powers.]]

* ''Film/TheBay'' revolves around a coastal town being almost wiped out by a disease [[spoiler: caused by a mutated fish parasite.]]

* In 1826, Creator/MaryShelley wrote ''The Last Man'', which depicted a future in which humanity is wiped out by a plague. It might be the first work of fiction to feature a plague as the premise.

* [[UsefulNotes/CoronavirusDisease2019Pandemic COVID-19]], a disease caused by the coronavirus [=SARS-CoV-2=] that originated from China when infected animals were sold in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan and was transmitted to humans when eaten, before spreading to the neighboring countries, then the other continents. As of 13 July 2020 there have been over 13 million cases and more than 573,000 deaths attributed to this disease ([[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ the countries with the highest number of infectees being the USA, Brazil, India, Russia, Peru, Chile, Spain, Mexico, the United Kingdom and South Africa]].)