What's the term for the first case in a pandemic?

[mushpuppy]

There's some sort of term--keystone, zero case, something like that.

I would appreciate if someone could share!

Thanks!

[robertpr007]

Don't know if this BBC article will help, but it's sure interesting reading. At the bottom of the page are several links to pandemic situations: [might be more there]

www.bbc.co.uk/science/hor...emic.shtml (http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/pandemic.shtml)

[iembalm]

I think it's 'Patient Zero' or something like that.
The first time I heard this term was in reference to that Air Canada fellow who supposedly spread the AIDS virus all over North America.

[Bonesetter]

Index case.

[mushpuppy]

Yes! I love you. Thank you, B.

[Fangasm]

I thought it was "Sh*t Out of Luck"

or

"Sucks to be You"

:lol

[Bonesetter]

I love you too, mushpuppy, but no touching. Thanks.

[Fortean]

The name given in the case of the AIDS pandemic was "Patient Zero." For an article on this instance, see:

www.cfeweb.hivnet.ubc.ca/...zette.html (http://www.cfeweb.hivnet.ubc.ca/Vanguard/PUBLICITY/MtlGazette.html)

Randy Shilts identified Gaetan Dugas, an Air Canada flight attendant, as 'Patient Zero' in 1987; but, the idea that this man was the first has been disclaimed, as AIDS was already present in the United States in the 1970s but went unrecognized. Earlier in 1984, there was a "Patient O," (for "Out of California"), who helped identify how the disease had been spread.

"There's no Patient Zero. It's lots and lots people moving around from New York to San Francisco, and the rest of the world. If there ever was an original Patient Zero, it would have been back in the mid-seventies. But there isn't an original Patient Zero."

Andrew Moss, quoted at: www.avert.org.uk/his87_92.htm (http://www.avert.org.uk/his87_92.htm)

[Bonesetter]

For an excellent look into the early days of the Aids epidemic, you can read Randy Shilts', And The Band Played On, or watch the HBO movie by the same title. The CDC did refer to Gaeten Dugas as Patient Zero, but that was for a single investigation within the CDC. It just happened to be the single most significant CDC investigation in the latter quarter of the 20th century.

However, the technical term for the first case in an epi/pandemic is "index case."


<!--EZCODE BOLD START--> Index case<!--EZCODE BOLD END--> The first case in a defined group to come to the attention of the investigator.

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> John Last, A Dictionary of Epidemiology, 2nd ed.<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->


"Patient Zero" is not in Last's Dictionary.