super spreader

This is the person you fear during an outbreak of an infectious disease. As a carrier of the disease they seem to be able to pass it on to a significantly larger than average number of people. There are various explanations for this. One is that they have a huge virus load which they shed in abundance to all around them. Another is that they have no symptoms themselves for a while so they pass the virus on while still apparently virus-free themselves. Another is that they just happen to be in a job or occupation where they meet more people in the average day than others would and so have more opportunities to pass on the virus. 

The term first came into use in the SARS outbreak in 2002, but it has been quickly revived in this latest Covid-19 outbreak. The medical world is wary of the term but the media is still on the lookout for someone who qualifies.  One patient in Wuhan infected 14 medical workers, and a British man who travelled from  Singapore to a French ski resort and then to his home town of Hove  has infected 11 people.  These two have been described in the media as super-spreaders.