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Stay calm, maintain composure, and perhaps increase your handwashing routine. This is the basic advice shared with the public during an outbreak of a deadly epidemic: keep the panic low and the pandemic manageable. However, behind the curtain, experts in epidemiology are racing against time to trace the disease’s origin, with hopes of discovering effective solutions to halt its spread.
Similar to an earthquake, every deadly epidemic originates from a central point, a focal location where the event begins. In the context of an epidemic, this focal point is an individual, known as patient zero. Below are 10 of the most notable patient zeros throughout history.
10. Typhoid Mary
We start with the most infamous patient zero in history, "Typhoid Mary," born Mary Mallon. At just 15 years old, Mary emigrated from Ireland to the United States in 1884 and found employment as a maid.
By 1906, Mary had advanced to the role of cook for the affluent Warren family, who spent their summers in Oyster Bay, Long Island. While Mary’s cooking never seemed to be an issue for her employers, it was peculiar that the individuals she cooked for often fell seriously ill.
Of the eight families Mary had worked for prior to the Warrens, seven had been affected by typhoid outbreaks. Mary was found to be a typhoid fever carrier, but as she wasn’t showing symptoms herself, she refused to comply with quarantine orders. In 1907, New York was hit by a large typhoid epidemic, infecting approximately 3,000 people, with Mary suspected of being patient zero.
After two years of forced confinement on North Brother Island, Mary was eventually released and took a job (under an alias) as a cook in a maternity hospital. Another typhoid outbreak followed, leading to her permanent incarceration on Pest Island in the East River. She passed away in isolation on November 11, 1938. Her obituary officially recognized her as the cause of 51 cases of typhoid and three deaths.
9. Frances Lewis
Cholera posed a significant public health risk in Victorian London. In 1854, within a span of just 10 days, 500 people died in a small area near central London. The symptoms of cholera were severe, including vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and intense thirst. A person who started feeling unwell could die within the same day.
By the time the cholera outbreak was over, more than 10,000 individuals had lost their lives, and scientists were desperate to identify the source of this deadly epidemic. Their investigation led them to the source: the diaper of a five-month-old baby, Frances Lewis.
Dr. John Snow, a local physician, mapped out the precise locations where cholera victims had died. Later known as the 'ghost map,' Snow’s chart revealed that the majority of victims lived near a water pump located on Broad Street. It was discovered that Frances Lewis’s mother had been washing her baby's soiled diapers in buckets of water, which she discarded into the cesspool in front of her home on Broad Street.
Victorian London was notorious for its lack of cleanliness, and the cesspool leaked directly into the town’s water supply, poisoning countless residents. Once the pump was shut down, the cholera outbreak quickly came to an end.
8. Mabalo Lokela
Ebola is widely recognized as one of the most frightening diseases of the 21st century. This virus causes its victims to experience severe internal bleeding, often leading to death. At present, there is no known cure, vaccine, or clear understanding of why the disease keeps resurfacing.
The first recorded case of Ebola involved a teacher named Mabalo Lokela, who lived in the town of Yambuku in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He returned from a trip in August 1976 with a high fever. Initially, doctors mistook it for malaria, but after two weeks of worsening symptoms—including uncontrollable vomiting, difficulty breathing, and bleeding from his eyes, nose, and mouth—he passed away.
Sadly, the Ebola virus did not die with Mabalo. Many people who had been in close contact with him during his illness contracted the disease. The result was devastating: nearly 90 percent of the population in his village died. This tragedy led to a global response as epidemiologists worked tirelessly to understand how to prevent the virus from spreading further.
The deadliest Ebola outbreak in history occurred in 2014, taking the lives of over 5,000 people within a year. By the time the outbreak ended in June 2016, more than 11,000 people had succumbed to the disease—five times the number of deaths from all previous Ebola outbreaks combined. The outbreak originated with a two-year-old boy in a remote village in Guinea, whose death was followed by that of his younger sister, pregnant mother, grandmother, and many others from their village. Despite the outbreak’s severity, it took months before Ebola received the global attention it so urgently needed.
7. Dr. Liu Jianlin
Over a span of nine months, SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) spread across the globe, resulting in 774 deaths across 37 countries and leaving many others seriously ill. First identified in Guangdong province, China, in November 2002, it was initially referred to as 'atypical pneumonia.' What began as flu-like symptoms rapidly progressed to severe pneumonia, ultimately leading to respiratory failure.
As often happens with new diseases, we were caught off guard, unaware of the severity until it was too late. By the time the world became aware of this contagious illness, Dr. Liu Jianlin, a medical professional from Guangdong, had already checked into the Metropole Hotel in Hong Kong.
Later described as highly contagious, Dr. Liu is believed to have infected about 12 people at the Metropole Hotel before succumbing to respiratory failure. One of those 12 was a woman named Sui-Chu Kwan, a resident of Scarborough, Ontario, who, feeling perfectly fine, boarded a plane to Canada two days after her encounter with Dr. Liu.
6. Edgar Enrique Hernandez, a young boy from Mexico, made headlines when he became the first person to be diagnosed with swine flu.
Although 'Kid Zero' might sound like the name of a comic book hero, it actually refers to the young boy who was the first human to contract the H1N1 virus. Four-year-old Edgar Enrique Hernandez from Mexico tested positive for swine flu in March 2009, and soon his smiling face graced the front pages of newspapers across the globe.
In the rural town of La Gloria, where Edgar lived, hundreds fell ill within weeks, and tragically, two children died. As of January 2016, the World Health Organization reported that over 18,000 people had died due to H1N1, though the CDC estimates the actual death toll worldwide could range between 150,000 and 575,000.
Many people in La Gloria suspect that the nearby industrial hog farms were the source of the swine flu outbreak, but it remains uncertain whether the virus truly originated from the pigpens. It is also unconfirmed if Edgar was indeed the first human infected with H1N1. Nevertheless, the town has recently unveiled a bronze statue of Edgar in an effort to attract tourists, giving the town a unique connection to the swine flu epidemic.
5. Patient Zero MERS
The MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in South Korea was officially declared over in July 2015. This deadly respiratory illness, sometimes referred to as 'camel flu,' was first identified in Saudi Arabia and is believed to have originated from bats. While the identity of the first MERS victim in Saudi Arabia remains unknown, when the virus spread to South Korea, leading to an epidemic that killed 36 people, it was easy to pinpoint the source to one individual.
The first individual to contract MERS during the South Korean outbreak initially sought medical care for a severe cough and high fever on May 11, 2015. At a clinic in Asan, located south of Seoul, doctors examined him over four days but were unable to determine the cause of his symptoms.
On May 20th, the patient visited the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, where he disclosed that he had recently traveled to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. After this, doctors correctly diagnosed him with the highly contagious MERS virus. By this point, patient zero had already transmitted the virus to the two men sharing his hospital room, his doctor, other patients in his hospital ward, and their family members.
A total of 186 confirmed MERS cases were reported in South Korea. In response, thousands of people were quarantined in an effort to prevent further spread, creating chaos in the city of Seoul as a result.
4. Gaetan Dugas
One of the most notorious figures associated with the HIV/AIDS epidemic is Gaetan Dugas, an Air Canada flight attendant. In the late 1970s, scientists identified him as the first person responsible for bringing the HIV/AIDS virus to the United States.
In his 1987 book And The Band Played On, journalist Randy Shilts publicly named Gaetan Dugas. Upon the release of the book, the New York Post ran a headline that read, “The Man Who Gave Us AIDS,” cementing the connection between Dugas and the devastation of the HIV/AIDS crisis.
Recent scientific studies, however, have cast doubt on whether Gaetan Dugas was truly patient zero in the HIV/AIDS epidemic. A genetic analysis of blood samples collected in the late 1970s suggests that the virus likely entered New York City in 1970, with connections to viruses already circulating in Haiti and other Caribbean nations at that time.
AIDS itself does not directly cause death; instead, it weakens the immune system, making individuals more vulnerable to other illnesses that ultimately lead to death. As of February 2020, approximately 30 million people worldwide have died from AIDS-related complications.
3. Goodwoman Phillips
Goodwoman Phillips wasn't the initial victim of the bubonic plague, nor was she the last. The disease itself, though rare, is still around today. Each year, there are hundreds of reported cases and fatalities, but it doesn’t reach the catastrophic levels seen during pandemics like the Black Death in the 14th century. Thanks to modern antibiotics, the plague can be treated. From 2000 to 2010, 21,725 people worldwide were affected, with 1,612 dying from it.
Goodwoman Phillips earned her place on the list of patient zeros because she was the first person officially recorded as dying from the bubonic plague during the Great Plague of London in 1665-66. This was made possible by John Graunt, a London draper with a keen eye for statistics. His meticulous records revealed that more than 68,000 people died from the plague in a city of around 450,000 people, accounting for over 15 percent of the population.
The people of London believed that two significant events triggered the plague that struck the city: the appearance of a comet in the sky and the coronation of King Charles II. The comet was interpreted as a sinister omen, foretelling the end of the world, while the plague was thought to follow a coronation, signaling that the new king lacked divine favor.
Today, we understand that the true cause of the Great Plague of London was the filthy living conditions, which placed people in close contact with rats carrying fleas that were infected with the plague.
2. Private Albert Gitchell
When thinking about deadly pandemics, several vicious viruses come to mind—the bubonic plague, cholera, Ebola, and typhoid. But what about the deceptively mild-sounding Spanish flu? The Spanish flu is one of the most catastrophic pandemics in history, believed to have claimed the lives of between 20 and 40 million people.
That's right—million. In 1918, during the chaos of World War I, the Spanish flu spread quietly, infecting up to a third of the world's population.
It all began on March 11, 1918, when Private Albert Gitchell, a cook stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, first started coughing. Army medics understood how rapidly a virus could spread in such a confined environment, so they quickly quarantined Gitchell. But the damage was already done.
Gitchell had prepared dinner for hundreds of soldiers the previous night, and by noon, more than 100 soldiers were already ill. Tragically, nearly half of them succumbed to the disease. The flu then spread uncontrollably through the U.S. and Europe, crossing enemy lines and eventually reaching every corner of the globe.
1. Patient Zero SARS-Cov-2
By December 2019, the first confirmed cases of SARS-Cov-2, or COVID-19, had emerged in China. This coronavirus, which would go on to cause a global pandemic, likely originated in a Chinese wet market. However, much remains unknown about the virus and its exact origins.
The Chinese government reported that patient zero could be traced back to a 55-year-old man from Hubei province. In late 2019, rumors about an unusual flu began circulating in Wuhan. On China's social media platform, WeChat, users were sharing concerns about their coughs and colds, with mentions of terms like 'SARS' and 'shortness of breath' rising significantly starting in mid-November.
By early December, doctors had identified a 'pneumonia of unknown origin,' with many of the early patients being workers or customers from a well-known market in Wuhan seeking medical care. While most people experienced few or no symptoms, some developed severe illness and even died. What starts as a simple cough can escalate into difficulty breathing, and in more serious cases, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) can occur around ten days after the first symptoms. At this stage, hospitalization and intubation for breathing support might be necessary.
The physical and mental consequences of the virus continue to be researched, and it may take years before we fully understand its impact. By May 2021, there had been more than 150 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and over three million deaths worldwide.
