Meaning of patient zero | Babel Free

Definitions

1. The initial patient in the population of an epidemiological investigation.
2. The source or origin of something.
   figuratively, informal

Equivalents

Examples

“When epidemiologists trace the evolution of a disease, they look for the first individual known to have contracted it, who is given the inglorious lavel "Patient Zero". For example, the official Patient Zero for the AIDS epidemic was a South African man who died in 1959 (though it is suspected that the disease originated as early as the 1920s.”

“When I think of Gaëtan Dugas, the French-Canadian flight attendant who paid his first known visit to a New York City bathhouse on October 31, 1980, the man to whom all the city's initial cases of AIDS would be traced back—hence the moniker he was given: patient zero […]”

“The term patient zero refers to the first infected patient in an epidemological investigation that is likely responsible for the spread of a particular infectious disease. Randy Shilts, author of And the band Played On, chronicled Darrow's investigation. It was Shilts who proposed that a homosexual Canadian flight attendant was likely patient zero. The flight attendant admitted to anonymous, unprotected sex with as many as 2,500 partners, even after he developed karposis sarcoma. As research continued, though, earlier cases of AIDS were reported (table I6-2), disproving the patient zero theory.”

“Danny Boyle, patient zero of the zombie revival, reviews The Walking Dead.”

“Dove, the Patient Zero of empowerment marketing, has lifted its sales to the tune of $1.5 billion with its "#RealBeauty" campaign, cooked up by executives who noticed that few women like to call themselves beautiful and saw in that tragic modesty a great opportunity to raise the profile of the Dove brand.”

“While hurricane-nuking is the most outlandish example of Trump's search for silver-bullet solutions, patient zero for this approach to governance is Trump's border wall.”

CEFR level