superspreading

English

Etymology

super- +‎ spreading

Noun

superspreading (uncountable)

1. (medicine, epidemiology) The spreading of an infection to many other people from a single individual.
   • 2005 November 17, J. O. Llloyd-Smith et al., “Superspreading and the effect of individual variation on disease emergence”, in Nature, volume 438, →DOI, pages 355–359:

     Our findings indicate that superspreading is a normal feature of disease spread […]

   • 2020 June 2, Dillon C. Adam, Benjamin J. Cowling, “Just Stop the Superspreading”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     We found that superspreading has overwhelmingly contributed to the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the city overall. Of the 349 local cases we identified — the remaining 689 cases were imported from other territories — 196 were linked to just six superspreading events.

2. Synonym of superwetting

Coordinate terms

• supercontacting
• supershedding

 

Related terms

• superspread
• superspreader