The Canadian flight attendant widely blamed for bringing HIV to the United States and triggering an epidemic that has killed nearly 700,000 people has been exonerated by science, more than 40 years after his death.
In a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, researchers used newly available genetic evidence to show that Gaetan Dugas — who has been dubbed “Patient Zero” — could not have been the first person in the U.S. to have the virus that causes AIDS.
Instead, the researchers report that Dugas was one of thousands of people who were infected with the human immunodeficiency virus by the late 1970s, years before it was officially recognized by the medical community in 1981.
The genetic analysis also reveals the path taken by the most common strain of the virus after it traveled from the Caribbean to the U.S. Upon arriving in New York City around 1970, it circulated and diversified for about five years before being dispersed across the country.
“There really is no question about the geographical direction of movement,” said study leader Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona in Tuscon.
I blame the guilt that was placed on him on homophobia. People in the 1970s and even early 80s still believed AIDS was sent as God's punishment to homosexuals, hence why this guy was so easily condemned. He couldn't have had an idea on what HIV is back then nor how it spreads and so, it's not his fault.
