The author discusses the historical changes in attitudes towards infectious diseases in the mythological, Christian-religious and scientific worldview before and after the discovery of the causes of these diseases in the context of the types of futuristic fiction. One narrative line of the novel by contemporary Polish writer Jacek Dukaj King of Pain and the Grasshopper (Król Bólu i pasikonik, 2010) is centred on to the production of retroviruses and carcinogenic agents by genetic engineering companies that cause epidemics and destroy wildlife in the southern hemisphere. The text points out the specifics of the author’s descriptions of the cause of the plague and discusses Dukaj’s speculative projections of futuristic fiction.