The research also confirms that Gaëtan Dugas, a Canadian flight attendant named in 1987 by author Randy Shilts, was not the first person in the US to be infected, despite being dubbed “Patient zero” by a study of homosexual men with Aids in 1984. Nevertheless, the idea that Dugas - who died of Aids in 1984 - was to blame caught on and he was vilified in the press. “In many ways the historical evidence has been pointing to the fallacy of this particular notion of patient zero for decades,” said McKay. The conclusions, they add, are also supported by the prevalence of the HIV virus among the collection of serum samples and the spread and timing of later patient cases. “No-one should be blamed for the spread of a virus that no-one even knew about,” he said.

Source: The Guardian October 26, 2016 16:52 UTC