Gaëtan Dugas (; February 20, 1952 – March 30, 1984) was a Canadian flight attendant widely claimed to be "patient zero" for the North American AIDS epidemic. This claim was exaggerated by the media through a misinterpretation of Randy Shilts's seminal 1987 book And the Band Played On. The claim has been refuted through subsequent scientific scrutiny. Genetic analysis later determined that several thousand gay men already had HIV in the United States prior to Dugas' own infection.

Dugas worked as a flight attendant for Air Canada. He died in Quebec City in March 1984 as a result of kidney failure caused by AIDS-related infections. In March 1984, a study tracked Dugas, along with other gay and bisexual men, to indicate his role in a particular cluster of 40 AIDS cases in the United States. He was named "Patient O" with "O" standing for "Out-of-California".

1984 cluster study

[[File:AIDS index case graph.svg|upright=1.5|thumb|A 1984 paper

Dugas is described as being a charming, handsome sexual athlete, who according to his own estimation, averaged hundreds of sex partners per year. In David France's 2016 book How to Survive a Plague, Shilts' editor expressed his regret for having "made a conscious decision to vilify Dugas in the book and publicity campaign in order to spur sales."

Re-examination

A number of authorities have since voiced reservations about the implications of the CDC's Patient Zero study and characterizations of Dugas as being responsible for bringing HIV to cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco. In 1988, Andrew R. Moss published an opposing view in The New York Review of Books.

In 2016, a group of researchers led by evolutionary biologist Michael Worobey conducted a genetic study that looked at blood samples taken from gay and bisexual men in 1978 and 1979 as part of a hepatitis B study, and based on the results of the data, concluded that Dugas was not the source of the virus in the United States. "On the family tree of the virus, Dugas fell in the middle, not at the beginning." "Beliefs about Patient Zero", Worobey concludes, "are unsupported by scientific data."

A study by historian Richard McKay of Cambridge and others identified several causes for the Patient Zero myth. During early CDC analysis of cases in California, patient 057 (Dugas) was nicknamed patient "O" for "Out-of-California", but this was interpreted by others as Patient Zero. This book contains the most definitive biography of Dugas' life, constructed through interviews with friends, family, and lovers. Robert M. Grant, an AIDS researcher at the University of California, has stated: "No one wants to be the Patient Zero of their village. But this may be helpful because it says, 'Just because you are the first to be diagnosed doesn't mean you started the epidemic.

Two films, John Greyson's musical comedy film Zero Patience (1993) and Laurie Lynd's documentary Killing Patient Zero (2019), have discussed the Patient Zero myth around Dugas.

Portrayal in film

Dugas was played by Jeffrey Nordling in the 1993 HBO adaptation of And the Band Played On.

See also

  • Robert Rayford, a 16-year-old boy who died in 1969, is considered to be the first recorded case of AIDS in the United States.
  • Timeline of early HIV/AIDS cases
  • Timeline of HIV/AIDS
  • Mary Mallon, better known as "Typhoid Mary", an Irish-American cook widely blamed for the spread of typhoid fever in 1900s New York

References

  • Halifax Rainbow Encyclopedia page for Dugas—he lived in Halifax for several years.
  • The 30 30 Campaign https://the3030campaign.com/year/1983 archive footage of Gaetan Dugas speaking at an AIDS Vancouver forum (beginning at ~5:45)
  • 'Patient Zero' no more - study reported in Science Magazine (Vol. 351, Issue 6277, pp. 1013), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (Article)