Gaëtan Dugas

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Gaëtan Dugas
Gaëtan Dugas.jpg
Born (1953-02-20)February 20, 1953
Quebec City, Quebec
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Quebec City, Quebec
Nationality Canadian
Occupation Flight attendant
Known for Widely reported as patient zero for AIDS

Gaëtan Dugas (French: [ɡaetɑ̃ dyˈɡa]; February 20, 1953 – March 30, 1984) was a Canadian and early AIDS patient who worked for Air Canada as a flight attendant.[1] In March 1984, a Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study tracking the sexual liaisons and practices of homosexual and bisexual men in California, New York, and some other states found Dugas to be the center of a network of sexual partners, which led to his being dubbed "patient zero".[2] The hypothesis that he initially brought HIV to North America was disproven, but he is known to have played a significant part in spreading the pandemic. He is used as an example in epidemiology of an index case.

Dugas traveled the world and had myriad homosexual encounters with other men.[3][4] He took full advantage of the recent de-criminalization of homosexuality in the USA and elsewhere. The extent to which HIV/AIDS was known about in the early 1980s, how it was spread, or when Dugas was diagnosed are disputed.[3]

Dugas died in Quebec City on March 30, 1984, as a result of kidney failure caused by AIDS-related infections.[5]

"Patient Zero" hypothesis

A study published in the American Journal of Medicine in 1984 traced many of New York City's early HIV infections to an unnamed infected homosexual male flight attendant. Epidemiologists hypothesized that Dugas had carried the virus out of Africa and introduced it into the Western homosexual community.[2]

Dugas is featured prominently in Randy Shilts's book And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic (1987), which documents the outbreak of the AIDS pandemic in the United States, and was portrayed by Jeffrey Nordling in the 1993 HBO film adaptation. Shilts portrays Dugas as behaving in a sociopathic manner by intentionally infecting, or at least recklessly endangering, others with the virus. Dugas is 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 since becoming sexually active in 1972.[6]

Genetic analysis of HIV provides some support for the Patient Zero theory. Dugas is now believed to be part of a cluster of homosexual men who traveled frequently, were extremely promiscuous, and died of AIDS at a very early stage in the epidemic.[7]

However, 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 like Los Angeles and San Francisco. In the Patient Zero study, the average length of time between sexual contact and the onset of symptoms was 10.5 months.[2] While Shilts's book does not make such an allegation, the rumor that Dugas was the principal disseminator of the virus became widespread. In 1988, Andrew R. Moss published an opposing view in the New York Review of Books.[8]

A November 2007 article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences rejects the Patient Zero hypothesis, and instead claims that HIV was transmitted from Africa to Haiti in 1966, and from Haiti to the United States in 1969.[9][10]

A 1984 paper[2] linked 40 AIDS patients by sexual contact. Of those patients, Dugas was the first to experience an onset of symptoms of AIDS. In the above graph, Dugas is represented by the circle highlighted in red.

See also

References

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External links


  1. (French) "La découverte de la maladie — Sida, les premières années" (Discovering the illness — AIDS, the first years), Radio-Canada, 17 January 1992.
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  3. 3.0 3.1 “Patient Zero”: The Absence of a Patient’s View of the Early North American AIDS Epidemic
  4. Gaétan Dugas and the 'AIDS Mary' myth"Gaétan Dugas, the gorgeous French-Canadian flight attendant who hopped cities as easily as he hopped beds."
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