"patient zero" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "Originally patient O (standing for out of California), referring to Gaëtan Dugas, a superspreader of AIDS who was at the time erroneously believed to have introduced the virus to the United States. The letter O was later misinterpreted as a zero.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "patient zeros",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "patient zeroes",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "s",
        "2": "es"
      },
      "expansion": "patient zero (plural patient zeros or patient zeroes)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Epidemiology",
          "orig": "en:Epidemiology",
          "parents": [
            "Medicine",
            "Biology",
            "Sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "78 22",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "100 0",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2005, John De Graaf, David Wann, Thomas H. Naylor, Redefining Progress, Affluenza: the all-consuming epidemic, 2nd illustrated edition, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, page 128",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Alistair McCartney, The end of the World book: a novel, Terrace Books, page 298",
          "text": "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 […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Teri Shors, Understanding viruses, illustrated edition, Jones & Bartlett Learning, page 443",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The initial patient in the population of an epidemiological investigation."
      ],
      "id": "en-patient_zero-en-noun-nPlu~5di",
      "links": [
        [
          "epidemiology",
          "epidemiology"
        ],
        [
          "patient",
          "patient"
        ],
        [
          "population",
          "population"
        ],
        [
          "epidemiological",
          "epidemiological"
        ],
        [
          "investigation",
          "investigation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(epidemiology) The initial patient in the population of an epidemiological investigation."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "index case"
        },
        {
          "word": "index patient"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "85 15",
          "word": "patient 0"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        "epidemiology",
        "medicine",
        "sciences"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "The source or origin of something."
      ],
      "id": "en-patient_zero-en-noun-WziASr5M",
      "links": [
        [
          "source",
          "source#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "origin",
          "origin#Noun"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively, informal) The source or origin of something."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Gaëtan Dugas"
  ],
  "word": "patient zero"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "en:People"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Originally patient O (standing for out of California), referring to Gaëtan Dugas, a superspreader of AIDS who was at the time erroneously believed to have introduced the virus to the United States. The letter O was later misinterpreted as a zero.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "patient zeros",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "patient zeroes",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "s",
        "2": "es"
      },
      "expansion": "patient zero (plural patient zeros or patient zeroes)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Epidemiology"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2005, John De Graaf, David Wann, Thomas H. Naylor, Redefining Progress, Affluenza: the all-consuming epidemic, 2nd illustrated edition, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, page 128",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Alistair McCartney, The end of the World book: a novel, Terrace Books, page 298",
          "text": "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 […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Teri Shors, Understanding viruses, illustrated edition, Jones & Bartlett Learning, page 443",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The initial patient in the population of an epidemiological investigation."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "epidemiology",
          "epidemiology"
        ],
        [
          "patient",
          "patient"
        ],
        [
          "population",
          "population"
        ],
        [
          "epidemiological",
          "epidemiological"
        ],
        [
          "investigation",
          "investigation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(epidemiology) The initial patient in the population of an epidemiological investigation."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "index case"
        },
        {
          "word": "index patient"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        "epidemiology",
        "medicine",
        "sciences"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English informal terms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The source or origin of something."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "source",
          "source#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "origin",
          "origin#Noun"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively, informal) The source or origin of something."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "patient 0"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Gaëtan Dugas"
  ],
  "word": "patient zero"
}