| Patient Zero |
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THE ORIGIN OF THE TERM "PATIENT ZERO" In the early years of the AIDS epidemic, there was a lot of controversy about a so-called ''Patient Zero'' who was the basis of a complex ''transmission scenario'' compiled by Dr. William Darrow and colleagues at the Center For Disease Control (CDC) in the US. This epidemiological study showed how 'Patient O' (mistakenly identified in the press as 'Patient Zero') had given HIV to multiple partners, who then in turn transmitted it to others and rapidly spread the virus to locations all over the world (Auerbach et al., 1984). In all, at least 40 of the 248 people diagnosed with AIDS by April 1982 were thought to have had sex either with him or with someone who had. A journalist, Randy Shilts , subsequently wrote an article based on Darrow's findings in his 1987 book '' And The Band Played On '', in which it named Patient Zero as a gay Canadian Flight Attendant named Gaëtan Dugas ( February 20 , 1953 — March 30 , 1984 {Link without Title} ). For several years, Dugas was vilified as a "mass spreader" of HIV and the original source of the HIV epidemic among gay men. However, four years after the publication of Shilts's article, Dr. Darrow repudiated his study, admitting that its methods were flawed and that Shilts had misrepresented the study's conclusions. OTHER PATIENT ZEROS
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