Beneficial Disease: Difference between revisions

 

Also related to [[One Curse Limit]].

 

== [[Advertising]] ==

* In a candy bar commercial, [[The Simpsons (animation)|Bart Simpson]] is diagnosed with Butterfingeritis. Homer grumbles, "Why does Bart always get the ''good'' diseases?"

 

* ''[[Baoh]]'' is aboht a man with a parasite which gives him super-powers but is still eventually fatal.

* Matou Kariya from ''[[Fate/Zero]]'' is infected with worms that will ultimately kill him, but infuse him with enough magical power to summon and control Beserker.

 

* No less than ''three'' of [[Empowered]]'s teammates got their powers from ''alien venereal diseases.''

* ''[[Blake and Mortimer]]''; a plot that hinges on {{spoiler|[[Children Are Innocent|young children spreading a disease to people in power by giving them flowers and a peck on the cheek]]}} is foiled when one is revealed to have sickle-cell anemia, preventing the disease from developping.

 

* There's the ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' fanfic "[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1399984/1/ Recnac Transfaerso]", where having cancer causes Harry to develop on-off superpowered magic.

 

* The science fiction novel ''The Skinner'' by Neal Asher is set on a [[Death World]] that has this gigantic leech whose bite carries a virus with interesting properties, rendering "victims" super strong and nearly immortal and indestructible. Almost all animals on-planet are infected by it, as are most humans who live there. The real downside is that the evolutionary "purpose" is so predators can have permanent prey, and even if you can't die, it doesn't mean you can't feel pain/suffer a [[Fate Worse Than Death]].

 

* This trope has been used multiple times on ''[[House (TV series)|House]]''.

* In ''[[Terra Nova]]'', a flu infection provides the main character immunity from another infection that wipes the person's memory

* ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' has a [[Downplayed Trope|downplayed]] example. Sheppard finds himself resistant to Lucius Lavin's mind-control pheromones, because he has a cold and can't smell anything.

* ''[[Look Around You]]'' has a disease called "Cobbles", which causes the skin to take on the appearance of stone until the victim looks like a pile of rocks, but also grants the ability to fly. The scientist who discovered a cure for the disease, a sufferer himself, opted not to use it because he liked being able to fly so much.

* One the abducted women in the ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' episode "The Uncanny Valley" was diabetic, which somehow allowed her to metabolize the paralytic drugs she was given at a faster than usual rate.

 

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* Malaria helps you deal with syphilis (High fevers can get rid of syphilis, and Malaria was deemed the optimal way of inducing the fevers for this purpose, since the fevers were both long and high, and then the Malaria itself could be treated with quinine). Someone even got a Nobel Prize for the discovery. Of course nobody cares now because of the discovery of penicillin.

** Syphilis in turn can, but usually doesn't, turn out positive as in end state it alters your brain chemistry. It usually slowly kills you, but in some people it made them more passionate, generally better-mooded and enjoy emotions more (including of course sex, ironically enough).