The Ethics of Hunting Down ‘Patient Zero’
The alleged “Patient Zero” of the American AIDS epidemic — a French Canadian flight attendant named Gaétan Dugas, who died of AIDS in 1984 — was exonerated last week.
Genetic sequencing of blood samples stored since the 1970s showed that the strain infecting him had circulated among gay men in New York for several years before he arrived here in 1974. Therefore, although he had hundreds of sexual partners in several cities, he did not introduce the virus to North America; he was a victim before he was a vector.
The revelation, some AIDS experts said, proved that the epidemic’s early days had been overshadowed by a witch hunt.… Seguir leyendo »