# Nominations for "Most Hideous Disease"? (WARNING, TMI, gross-out, etc) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 8, 2003, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominations-for-most-hideous-disease-warning-tmi-gross-out-etc/153699 "2003-02-08T10:24:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Tsubaki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@Tsubaki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tsubaki)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominations-for-most-hideous-disease-warning-tmi-gross-out-etc/153699/41 "2003-02-11T01:34:05Z")
Generally I can look at all these pics of maladies with no problem. Until I came across the pics of Harlequin Foetus. The first pic on the page is embedded in my brain now. I swear its going to give me nightmares. Can you imagine those poor parents, looking forward to seeing their baby, and being faced with that? You wouldn’t even want to take a picture so you could remember the child you lost. Let alone the poor baby. I’m unable to look at any of the other pics now. I think I will just go and give my kids a hug, and cuddle my little healthy baby. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominations-for-most-hideous-disease-warning-tmi-gross-out-etc/153699/42 "2003-02-11T02:53:14Z")
Um, didn’t someone once get in trouble here for posting the Harlequin fetus? I thought that was a hoax? ---
**Author:** ![IThinkNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ce73a5/32.png) [@IThinkNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IThinkNot)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominations-for-most-hideous-disease-warning-tmi-gross-out-etc/153699/43 "2003-02-11T02:58:40Z")
Okay, this is officially the **sickest** thread I have ever seen. That being said: Convulsions. Not any specific disease, not any actual diagnosed problem, just convulsions. Cholera, seizuring, brain cancer, doesn’t matter. Convulsions _scare the shit out of me._ As far as a real illness goes, I think the worst is: \*\*bubonic plague. \*\*Late, late, late stages. White lips, pale/green skin, _convulsions_, throwing up, freezing, fevers, hacking up lungs, among other equally horrifying symptoms, and (finally) rigor mortis when you are dead and your emaciated body is all shriveled up and white and your mouth is frozen open and… \ ---
**Author:** ![IThinkNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ce73a5/32.png) [@IThinkNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IThinkNot)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominations-for-most-hideous-disease-warning-tmi-gross-out-etc/153699/44 "2003-02-11T03:01:14Z")
Guinastasia: Possibly. Those pictures looked doctored to me… but whether they were or not is beside the point. They were SICKENING. \ ---
**Author:** ![kismet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc8723/32.png) [@kismet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kismet)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominations-for-most-hideous-disease-warning-tmi-gross-out-etc/153699/45 "2003-02-11T03:01:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\*Um, didn’t someone once get in trouble here for posting the Harlequin fetus? I thought that was a hoax? \*\* I’ve seen it in a medical dictionary before, that’s why I personally never followed any of the posted links to Harlequin babies. Seeing a Harlequin baby once is enough to make me physically ill. You just can’t help but feel sorry for the child and its parents. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominations-for-most-hideous-disease-warning-tmi-gross-out-etc/153699/46 "2003-02-11T03:08:59Z")
Harlequin fetus did come up recently, but there’s no indication of anyone having gotten in trouble (at least, not publicly). [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=139515](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=139515) ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominations-for-most-hideous-disease-warning-tmi-gross-out-etc/153699/47 "2003-02-11T17:26:09Z")
Yes, I should have heeded the warning not to check the links. I could have gone the rest of my life without knowing such a thing as Harlequin Fetus existed. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominations-for-most-hideous-disease-warning-tmi-gross-out-etc/153699/48 "2003-02-11T21:08:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Smeghead \* > \*\*I took a vertebrate/invertebrate biology class (it was thorough). The nematode unit was…interesting. One picture I remember in particular: a girl, about thirteen years old or so, was lying naked on her stomach. She’d just been given a pill to expel all the worms that had been living in her guts. There was a pile of white worms from her crotch to her knees. Thousands of them. > > Or then there’s the one that lives just under your skin. You notice that you have a small sore that just won’t heal. This is because every night the worm extends its anus end through that sore and lays eggs. Removing it is the worst part. You can’t cut it out because of the danger that you’ll cut into it, which would cause blood poisoning. Similarly, you can’t yank it out all at once, for the same reason. So you have to grab it when it’s laying eggs, and pull about a centimeter of it out, then tape it to your skin so it doesn’t go back in. Repeat daily until the whole thing is finally out. In the meantime, you have a chunk of living worm hanging out of your arm. \*\* I read somewhere that the “serpent on a staff” or cadulus (sp?) is based on this method of dealing with this parasite. The strangest, most grotesque parasite I have ever heard of is one which infests fish - the parasite _eats the fishes tounge_, and then actually _replaces_ said tounge! Check out this beauty: [http://www.carlzimmer.com/photo\_1.html](http://www.carlzimmer.com/photo_1.html) ---
**Author:** ![X\_Slayer\_ALE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbe5ce/32.png) [@X\_Slayer\_ALE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/X_Slayer_ALE)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominations-for-most-hideous-disease-warning-tmi-gross-out-etc/153699/49 "2003-02-11T21:21:24Z")
Everything posted in this thread is horribly disgusting!! I was just going to mention the Flesh Eating Virus but all the diseases mentioned here makes that look like a minor rash! OOOO I think im losing my lunch … hope I dont see any evidence of nematodes or whatever… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nominations-for-most-hideous-disease-warning-tmi-gross-out-etc/153699.md?page=2)