Awakenings, by Oliver Sacks, is a book of case studies concerning the L-Dopa treatments of patients of the epidemic; it is a profoundly moving book. Dramatized into a film starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro (and, incidentally, the single most emotionally manipulative, heart-wrenching film I've ever seen, by a fair margin--medical horror is hard to beat). Up there with brain-eating amoebas and rabies for me when it comes to terrifying afflictions.