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Corrupted Blood incident
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On September 13, 2005, a new area called Zul'Gurub opened up. During the battle with the boss Hakkar, players would contract a disease known as "Corrupted Blood". This disease was transmitted to other players in the vicinity, but was not supposed to go beyond the borders of the Zul'Gurub area. The developers did not include one feature - the summoned animal was also infected, but could be recalled before leaving the area and summoned in another location. Thus began an epidemic called the "Spoiled Blood Incident".
This event interested epidemiologists, because the behavior of players was similar to the behavior of people during epidemics in the real world. Some players, after a quarantine was declared, isolated themselves. Others, either intentionally or out of curiosity, went into densely populated areas and traveled to other cities. Stronger players healed and helped newcomers. Non-player characters carried the disease asymptomatically and spread the disease as well.
On September 16, server restarts and patches began. On September 18, the first messages on forums about the end of the epidemic appeared. The epidemic was finally defeated by the beginning of October with the release of the full-fledged patch 1.8.
Major publications, including BBC NEWS, The Washington Post, medical publications The Lancet and Epidemiology, wrote about the epidemic.
Chronology
September 13, 2005
Blizzard releases Patch 1.7 to World of Warcraft, opening Zul'Gurub, a new 20 man instance.
Between September 13-16*
Plague begins spreading on the Archimonde server.
Between September 13-16*
Blizzard establishes quarantines to stop the spread of the disease.
September 16, 2005, 4:26 AM PDT
Player posts on WoW forum asking for information about a plague spreading through Orgrimmar on the Gorganash server.
September 16, 2005, 7:54 AM (unknown)
Faxmonkey records video of deaths due to plague in Orgrimmar on the Blackrock server.
September 16, 2005, 10:13 AM PDT
Blizzard staffer Caydiem reports that Blizzard staffers are "aware of the issue and are working on it."
September 16, 2005, 8:40 PM PDT
Blizzard staffer Tseric announces rolling restarts on all servers to combat the plague.
September 17, 2005, 4:00 AM PDT
Blizzard begins rolling restarts for all realms to apply a hotfix, which alters the game so that "Hakkar's spell Corrupted Blood can no longer exist outside of Zul'Gurub."
September 17, 2005, 12:50 PM PDT
Blizzard staffer Tseric posts to the official forums about the failure of the hotfix -- "It appears that the hotfix remedy concocted to combat the recent Azerothian outbreak has not yielded desired results. At this time, our medical staff is continuing to develop an effective cure. We look forward to ensuring the health and vitality of the citizens of Azeroth in the near future."
September 18-23, 2005
In non-official forums, players report an end to the plague, despite the 09/17/05 post of 12:50PM.
September 19, 2005
Game-related blogs begin reporting on the plague.
September 20, 2005
G4TV's Attack of the Show posts satirical public service announcement asking "the gaming community to support those afflicted by the WoW plague."
September 22, 2005
The BBC News Website reports on the plague.
October 5, 2005
NPR's All These Considered reports on how the plague "has scientists considering how the virtual world may provide clues to what people would do in real-world pandemics."
October 10, 2005
Blizzard released patch 1.8 which "Fixed a bug that would allow Hakkar's Corrupted Blood ability to target pets."
March 2007
Ran Balicer publishes "Modeling Infectious Diseases Dissemination Through Online Role-Playing Games" in Epidemiology, Volume 18, Issue2.
September 2007
Nina Fefferman and Eric Lofgren publish "The untapped potential of virtual game worlds to shed light on real world epidemics" in The Lancet, volume 7, Issue 9.
February 28, 2011
Nina Fefferman speaks at the Serious Games Summit of the Game Developers Convention on how
"Hakkar's Corrupted Blood Plague: How an Outbreak in WoW is Helping Epidemiologists Create Better
Disease Models."


*Not verified by primary sources.
Timeline author Jessica Smith

October 2008
Blizzard held a week-long zombie event to promote the Wrath of the Lich King
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