Article ID: CBB001420152

“Patient Zero”: The Absence of a Patient's View of the Early North American AIDS Epidemic (2014)

unapi

This article contextualizes the production and reception of And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts's popular history of the initial recognition of the American AIDS epidemic. Published over twenty-five years ago, the book and its most notorious character, Patient Zero, are in particular need of a critical historical treatment. The article presents a more balanced consideration---a patient's view---of Gaétan Dugas's experience of the early years of AIDS. I oppose the assertion that Dugas, the so-called Patient Zero, ignored incontrovertible information about the condition and was intent on spreading his infection. Instead I argue that scientific ideas in 1982 and 1983 about AIDS and the transmissibility of a causative agent were later portrayed to be more self-evident than they were at the time. The article also traces how Shilts's highly selective---and highly readable---characterization of Dugas rapidly became embedded in discussions about the need to criminalize the reckless transmission of HIV.

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Authors & Contributors
Herzlich, Claudine
Scheppele, Kim Lane
Brier, Jennifer M.
Power, Jennifer
Molyneux, Catherine
Geissler, P. Wenzel
Journals
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
Health and History
Medical History
Journal of Social Issues
Gender and History
Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Publishers
University of North Carolina Press
ANU E Press
Berghahn Books
Columbia University Press
Ohio University Press
Queen's University (Canada)
Concepts
AIDS (disease); HIV / AIDS
Human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV)
Epidemics
Public health
Infectious diseases
Disease and diseases
People
Ladoo, Harold Sonny
Cassin, Frieda
Kincaid, Jamaica
Time Periods
20th century, late
20th century
21st century
19th century
18th century
Places
South Africa
United States
Africa
France
Australia
New Zealand
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