superspreader

Example Sentences

• "In the SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome] outbreak, New York forcibly quarantined a man suspected of having the disease after he refused to isolate himself. That's a real breach of liberty, but suppose he had been an irresponsible superspreader like Typhoid Mary and caused the disease to spin out of control?"
• "Another SARS superspreader took the invader by the hand to Singapore's 1,200-bed Tan Tock Seng Hospital. Crowded emergency departments and highly mobile medical staff did the honors with more help from superspreaders. One patient alone infected 24 health-care workers, 15 patients, and 12 visitors. […] It [the SARS-CoV-1 virus] quickly found a superspreader in a dedicated hospital laundry attendant who ignored his diarrhea and pneumonia and doggedly stuck to his duties. The workaholic generated 137 infections among patients, doctors, and nurses."
• "One of the most notorious superspreaders was Typhoid Mary, an Irish cook who was an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever. […] Another well-known superspreader was Gaetan Dugas, considered patient zero for the emergence of HIV in North America; he was a promiscuous homosexual with an estimated 250 partners per annum who remained sexually active until he died at thirty-two years of age."
• "A major concern is that with both SARS and MERS [Middle East respiratory syndrome], a few patients inexplicably became "superspreaders" who infected huge numbers of other people. At a hospital in Seoul, South Korea, in 2015, one man with MERS transmitted it to 82 patients."
• "[S]cientists have learned a lot about airborne respiratory fluids and, in particular, what might make someone a superspreader, or superemitter. Certain attributes, such as the shape of one’s body, and certain behaviours, such as loud talking or breathing fast, appear to have a major role in spreading the disease.."
• "In June, the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union], on behalf of half a dozen detainees housed in various Orange County jails, sued the sheriff in state court, arguing that the jails were superspreaders-in-waiting: the cramped quarters, inadequate cleaning protocols, and severely limited hygiene make jails an ideal hunting ground for the virus."