Gaëtan Dugas

Infobox Person
name = Gaëtan Dugas


image_size = 180px
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1953|02|20
birth_place =
death_date = death date and age|1984|03|30|1953|02|20
death_place = Quebec City, Quebec
other_names =
known_for = Alleged Patient Zero for AIDS
occupation = Flight attendant

Gaëtan Dugas (February 20, 1953–March 30, 1984) was a French-Canadian who worked for Air Canada as a flight attendant. [fr icon [http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-0-13-400-2251/desastres_tragedies/sida/clip1 "La découverte de la maladie — Sida, les premières années"] (Discovering the illness — AIDS, the first years), "Radio-Canada", 17 January 1992] Dugas became notorious as the alleged Patient Zero for AIDS.

Patient Zero?

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 incorrectly hypothesized that Dugas carried the virus out of Africa and introduced it into the Western homosexual community. [cite journal
last = Auerbach
first = D.M.
coauthors = W.W. Darrow, H.W. Jaffe, and J.W. Curran
title = Cluster of cases of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Patients linked by sexual contact
journal = The American Journal of Medicine
volume = 76
issue = 3
pages = 487–92
date = 1984
url = http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=6608269&dopt=Citation
accessdate = March 2007
doi = 10.1016/0002-9343(84)90668-5]

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 Gaëtan Dugas as having almost sociopathic behavior, by allegedly intentionally infecting, or at least recklessly endangering, others with the virus. Dugas 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 since becoming sexually active in 1972. [cite book
last = Gladwell
first = Malcolm
title = "The Tipping Point"
publisher = Little Brown
date = 2000
pages = 21
isbn = 0-316-34662-4] As a flight attendant Dugas was able to travel the globe, at little cost, to such early HIV epicenters as Los Angeles, New York, Paris, London, and San Francisco. Being diagnosed with Kaposi's Sarcoma in June 1980, and after being warned that this could be caused and spread by a sexually transmitted virus, Dugas refused to stop having unprotected sex, claiming that he could do what he wanted with his body. He 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. [cite book | last = Shilts | first = Randy | authorlink = Randy Shilts | title = "And The Band Played On" | publisher = Penguin | date = 1988 | pages = 439 | id = ISBN 0-14-011130-1]

Analysis and criticism

Genetic analysis of HIV provides some support for the Patient Zero theory. But some allege that Dugas probably was not exclusively responsible for the initial spread of the virus in the United States, as 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). [cite journal
last = Kuiken
first = C
coauthors = Thakallapalli R, Esklid A, de Ronde A
title = Genetic analysis reveals epidemiologic patterns in the spread of human immunodeficiency virus
journal = American Journal of Epidemiology
volume = 152
issue = 9
pages = 814–22
publisher = Los Alamos National Laboratory
date = 2000 Nov 1
url = http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=11085392&dopt=Abstract
accessdate = March 2007
doi = 10.1093/aje/152.9.814
pmid = 11085392]

However, a number of authorities have since voiced reservations about the implications of the CDC Patient Zero study, and characterisations of Dugas as being "responsible" for single-handedly bringing HIV to such places as San Francisco or Los Angeles. While Shilts's book does not 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 debunked the story in the "New York Review of Books". [Moss, Andrew R. [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/4227 "AIDS Without End"] , "The New York Review of Books", December 8, 1988, retrieved December 2, 2006]

A more recent work published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" on November 1, 2007 dismisses this patient zero hypothesis and claims that AIDS transited from Africa to Haiti in 1966 and from Haiti to the United States in 1969. [ [http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN2954500820071030 AIDS virus invaded U.S. from Haiti: study] ] [ [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=17978186&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum The emergence of HIV/AIDS in the Americas and beyond.]

PUTOOOOSS!]

Cultural references

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). The film does not identify Dugas by name, naming the character "Zero," although Zero, like Dugas, was a French-Canadian flight attendant.

The 1993 American made-for-TV docudrama "And the Band Played On" features Gaëtan Dugas as a side character in the film. He is portrayed by Jeffrey Nordling.

Dugas mentioned in Chuck Palahniuk's book, Rant, which is about a rabies superspreader. Typhoid superspreader, Mary Mallon is mentioned in the same sentence.

ee also

*Timeline of early AIDS cases (1959~1979)
*Timeline of AIDS (1930~2006)
*CCR5
*Epidemiology
*Mary Mallon

Notes

External links

* [http://home.cfl.rr.com/atbpo/ Photographs of the real people from Randy Shilts' history of the AIDS crisis "And the Band Played On"]
* [http://gay.hfxns.org/GaetanDugas Halifax Rainbow Encyclopedia page for Dugas] -- he lived in Halifax for several years.