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Definition of Patient zero
1. Noun. The initial patient in the population of an epidemiological investigation. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Medical Definition of Patient zero
1. The individual identified in 1982 by the Centres for Disease Control as responsible for introducing the HIV virus into the U.S. Population. A Canadian citisen, Patient Zero was a homosexual airline steward who claimed to have had as many as 2,500 sexual encounters. CDC epidemiologists located 19 men in Los Angeles, 22 in New York City, and 8 in other cities who had contracted AIDS from contact with Patient Zero, the earliest known cases of the disease in the U.S. Revealed to be Gaetan Dugas, Patient Zero died in 1984 due to AIDS-related illness. (05 Mar 2000)