Search results
- DictionaryPa·tient ze·ro
noun
- 1. used to refer to the person identified as the first carrier of a communicable disease in an outbreak of related cases: US "patient zero for the outbreak was suspected to be a 2-year-old boy"
Powered by Oxford Languages
The meaning of PATIENT ZERO is a person identified as the first to become infected with an illness or disease in an outbreak; especially : a person documented as being the first known case of a communicable disease in a particular population or region. How to use patient zero in a sentence.
People also ask
What does patient zero mean?
Why is Patient Zero important?
Is 'Patient Zero' a real thing?
What is an example of a 'patient zero'?
The index case or patient zero is the first documented patient in a disease epidemic within a population, or the first documented patient included in an epidemiological study.
Also known as an index case, patient zero is a term used to describe the first human infected by a viral or bacterial disease in an outbreak. Advances in genetic analysis now make it...
Jul 1, 2019 · What does patient zero mean? Patient zero is a popular medical term referring to the first person infected in an epidemic. Patient zero can also be a metaphor for initial actions that have major downstream consequences.
PATIENT ZERO meaning: 1. the first person to be infected during an epidemic (= the appearance of a particular disease in…. Learn more.
Patient zero is an idiom referring to the first individual affected or identified in an outbreak of a disease or epidemic. While it might evoke scenes from a dystopian thriller, the term has real-world significance and is notably linked to the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.
Apr 1, 2020 · Writing of a “patient zero” is a damaging red herring that distracts from constructive efforts to contain the epidemic. Let’s wash our hands of this toxic phrase.
