今天媒體報導「研究廣州零號感染源,疑透過餐廳空調傳播」,之前媒體也常出現「零號病人」之類的報導,諸如:「義大利 0 號病人出院遭起底竟是…」,「紐約確診人數近6萬上州零號病人出院」。
所謂「零號病人」,就是台灣平常我們說的「首例」。如:「台首例武漢肺炎病患出院」,【獨家專訪】台灣首例武漢肺炎確診個案治癒過程!
「零號病人」英文叫 patient zero 或 index case,見 Wikipedia 的解釋:
The index case (sometimes referred to as patient zero) is the first documented patient in a disease epidemic within a population, or the first documented patient included in an epidemiological study.
為何第一個案例會說成 patient zero? BBC 有一則關於新冠肺炎的報導裡提到它的由來:
愛滋病流行期間意外創造了「零號病人」一詞。80年代初期,美國 CDC 的研究人員在調查愛滋病在洛杉磯和舊金山的傳播時,以英文字母 O來指「加州以外」(outside of California) 的某個案例。其他研究人員誤將這字母解讀為數字0,因此「零號病人」的說法就這樣誕生了。
Who is 'patient zero' in the coronavirus outbreak?
…More specifically, who is "patient zero" for the outbreak. 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.
Curiously, it was during the HIV epidemic that the term patient zero was accidently created.
Whilst investigating the spread of the disease in Los Angeles and San Francisco in the early 80s, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) used the letter "O" to refer a case of someone "outside the state of California".
Other researchers wrongfully interpreted the letter as a number 0 – and so the concept of patient zero was born. (Fernando Duarte, 24th February 2020, BBC)
台灣也有類似的例子:「OK便利商店」很多人以為英文唸作 OK convenience store,其實在國外叫 Circle K convenience store,我們則是化「零/圈」為字母 O!(Jerome Su, April 16, 20)