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- Thread starter Ceiling Cat
- Start date
What's his name?
Correct!
At one time, Dugas was misidentified as the first person in North America to have the HIV virus:
from wikipedia:
" Gaëtan Dugas (French: [ɡaetɑ̃ dyɡa]; February 20, 1953 – March 30, 1984) was a Canadian flight attendant incorrectly identified as "patient zero" during the AIDS epidemic. This narrative, popularized notably by Randy Shilts' 1987 book And the Band Played On, has been refuted through subsequent scientific scrutiny. ...
Dugas is featured prominently in Randy Shilts' 1987 book And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic (1987), which documents the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic in the United States. Shilts refers to Dugas as "Patient Zero" and portrays him as having almost sociopathic behaviour by allegedly intentionally infecting, or at least recklessly endangering, others with the virus. Shilts interviewed epidemiologist Selma Dritz who reported that in 1982 she informed Dugas that he was infecting other people, but he refused to cease having casual sex in spite of this. Dugas is described as being a charming, handsome sexual athlete who, according to his own estimation, averaged hundreds of sex partners per year. He claimed to have had over 2,500 sexual partners across North America since becoming sexually active in 1972. 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." ...
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. "
