Gaëtan Dugas
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Gaëtan Dugas (February 20, 1953–March 30, 1984) was a French-Canadian homosexual man, who worked for Air Canada as a flight attendant. [1] Dugas became notorious as the alleged patient zero for acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
[edit] Patient Zero?
A 1984 study published in the American Journal of Medicine in 1984 traced many of New York City's early HIV infections to an unnamed infected gay male flight attendant. Epidemiologists hypothesized that Dugas carried the virus out of Africa and introduced it into the Western homosexual community.[2]
Dugas was featured prominently in Randy Shilts's book And the Band Played On, which documented the outbreak of AIDS in the United States. Shilts portrayed Gaetan as having almost psychopathic behavior, by allegedly intentionally infecting others with the virus. Gaëtan was described as being a charming, handsome sexual athlete, who, according to his own estimation, averaged hundreds of sex partners a year. He claimed to have had over 2,500 sexual partners across North America.[3] As a flight attendant he was able to travel the globe at little cost to such early HIV epicenters as Los Angeles, New York, Paris and San Francisco. After being warned that his Kaposi's Sarcoma could be caused and spread by a sexually-transmitted virus, Dugas refused to stop having unprotected sex, and allegedly informed certain sex partners that he had the "gay cancer" and perhaps they would get it too.
Dugas died in Quebec City on March 30, 1984 as a result of kidney failure caused by continual AIDS-related infections[4].
[edit] Analysis and Criticism
Genetic analysis of HIV provides some support for the 'patient zero' theory, although Dugas probably was not solely responsible for the initial spread of the virus in the United States: he was believed to be part of a cluster of homosexual men who traveled frequently, were extremely sexually active, and died of AIDS at a very early stage in the epidemic (around 1980-1982).[5]
However, a number of authorities have since voiced their reservations about the implications of the CDC "Patient Zero" study, and some resulting characterisations of Dugas as being "responsible" for single-handedly bringing HIV to places like San Francisco or Los Angeles. While Shilts's book does not go so far as to make such an allegation, the rumour, due to a misunderstanding of the proper interpretation of the early HIV patient cluster study, became difficult to eradicate. Andrew R. Moss performed a thorough debunking of the story in the New York Review of Books[6].
The 1993 Canadian musical/comedy/drama film "Zero Patience" uses the theory of Dugas being 'Patient Zero' as its basis (largely ridiculing this theory in the process).
[edit] References and external links
- ^ (French) La découverte de la maladie — Sida, les premières années (Discovering the illness — AIDS, the first years), Radio-Canada, 17 January 1992
- ^ Auerbach, D.M.; W.W. Darrow, H.W. Jaffe, and J.W. Curran (1984). "Cluster of cases of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Patients linked by sexual contact". The American Journal of Medicine 76 (3): 487-92. Retrieved on March 2007.
- ^ Gladwell, Malcolm (2000). The Tipping Point. Little Brown, 21. ISBN 0-316-34662-4.
- ^ Shilts, Randy (1988). And The Band Played On. Penguin, 439. ISBN 0-14-011130-1.
- ^ Kuiken, C; Thakallapalli R, Esklid A, de Ronde A (2000 Nov 1). "Genetic analysis reveals epidemiologic patterns in the spread of human immunodeficiency virus.". American Journal of Epidemiology 152 (9): 814-22. Retrieved on March 2007.
- ^ Moss, Andrew R. 'AIDS Without End', The New York Review of Books, December 8, 1988, retrieved December 2, 2006
