Klaupfer's disease

Klaupfer's disease is a rather successful cinematic move, though it attracted attention not so much to the series "Univer" as to the all-powerful global Internet. Cinema, in principle, is called upon to shape our worldview with the help of myths, so, quite recently, many sincerely believed in the possibility of programming with the 25th frame, which later turned out to be an outright fiction. However, while the myth was being exposed, many experts in the field of politics, advertising, and the medical world made fortunes on this belief. It is enough to recall the coding of many types of addictions with the help of a "mythical" frame, which is supposedly not perceived by the brain at a conscious level, but is well absorbed by the subconscious. The obvious influence of television along with cinema continues to shape the lives of many gullible viewers. Series on medical topics, in addition to purely entertaining effects, sometimes provoke especially impressionable people to search for non-existent diseases. Thus, American researchers recorded an increase in requests for medical help after watching the next season of the series "House M.D."

The Russian TV series "Univer" is not a sitcom dedicated to medicine, but it has caused a wave of interest in a mysterious disease that the main character named Kuzya invented as a fake diagnosis. Klaupfer's disease simply blew up search engines last fall. People were looking for a description of the disease, symptoms, possible consequences and ways to cure this disease. The forty-seventh episode of the series became a real trigger, which set off the alarm of Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and other Siberian cities. Paradoxically, statistics showed an unprecedented interest in Klaupfer's disease on the part of Russians living in Siberia, in other regions people were also interested in the mythical disease, but much less.

According to the plot of the episode, Kuzya, who fabricated a fake certificate, became a terminally ill young man in the eyes of his friends, since Klaupfer's disease, according to the writers' fiction, is incurable. Moreover, in response to persistent search queries, long-awaited answers appeared, often sarcastic in content, obviously coming from pseudoscientific sources. Klaupfer's disease was called mortally dangerous and belonged to the category of neurodegenerative diseases, and the text indicated that this disease mainly affects young and middle-aged people who lead a sedentary lifestyle and "sit" at the computer for days.

By the way, neurodegenerative diseases are really serious, severe pathologies that are provoked by a decrease in the number of certain neurons and changes in the process of neurotransmitter exchange. As a rule, such diseases are multifocal, that is, when developing, they affect many organs and systems. The onset of neurodegenerative diseases is noted at a young age, but the disease is asymptomatic and has no obvious clinical manifestations. Such a latent period lasts for decades, and the disease begins to progress when the protective and compensatory functions of the body weaken, that is, in old age. Neurodegenerative diseases are senile dementia, described by the psychiatrist Alzheimer, and since then called Alzheimer's disease. The list also includes Parkinson's disease, cerebellar ataxia, amyotrophic sclerosis and other diseases of degenerative etiology.

Klaupfer's disease is not on this list and, obviously, never will be. Although it is human nature to believe many myths coming from the media, it is quite possible that this "cinematic" disease will give the name to a new disease, which is characterized by total gullibility and a complete lack of common sense. Moreover, the author (screenwriter and producer) of the series is Vyacheslav Dusmukhametov, who already tried to joke in a similar way in another popular series "Interns". True, then his fictitious diagnosis "tropical hemangioma of Movsesyan" caused only laughter, and not a wave of search queries. But the series continue to be filmed, and the imagination of the former doctor Dusmukhametov is obviously inexhaustible, new diagnoses are ahead.