McKay, Richard A. (Author)
University of Chicago Press
Physical Details: 432 pp.
Language: English
The search for a "Patient Zero"--Popularly understood to be an epidemic's first infected case--has been key to media coverage of major infectious disease outbreaks for more than three decades. Yet the term itself did not exist before the emergence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. How did this idea so swiftly exert a strong grip on the popular consciousness? In Patient Zero and the Making of the AIDS Epidemic, Richard A. McKay demonstrates how this seemingly new concept drew upon centuries-old ideas--and fears--about contagion and social disorder. McKay presents a carefully documented account of the life of Ga�tan Dugas, a gay man whose skin cancer diagnosis in 1980 took on very different meanings as the epidemic developed and who gained widespread posthumous infamy when he was incorrectly identified as Patient Zero of the North American outbreak. McKay shows how public health investigators inadvertently created the term amid their early research into the emerging health crisis; how an ambitious journalist dramatically amplified the idea in his determination to reframe national debates about AIDS; and how many individuals grappled with the notion of Patient Zero--adopting, challenging and redirecting its powerful meanings--as they tried to make sense of and respond to the first fifteen years of an unfolding epidemic in Canada and the United States. With important insights for our interconnected age, Patient Zero untangles the complex process by which individuals and groups create meaning and allocate blame when faced with new disease threats.--Page 4 of cover.
...MoreReview Maeleigh Tidd (2020) Review of "Patient Zero and the Making of the Aids Epidemic". Pharmacy in History (pp. 73-75).
Review Stephen Inrig (2019) Review of "Patient Zero and the Making of the Aids Epidemic". American Historical Review (pp. 1111-1112).
Review Gerald M. Oppenheimer (2019) Review of "Patient Zero and the Making of the Aids Epidemic". Bulletin of the History of Medicine (pp. 294-295).
Review Jim Downs (2019) Review of "Patient Zero and the Making of the Aids Epidemic". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (pp. 482-484).
Review Neeraja Sankaran (2018) Review of "Patient Zero and the Making of the Aids Epidemic". British Journal for the History of Science (pp. 536-538).
Review Victoria A Harden (2019) Review of "Patient Zero and the Making of the Aids Epidemic". Social History of Medicine (pp. 436-437).
Review Steven Noll (2019) Review of "Patient Zero and the Making of the Aids Epidemic". Journal of American History (pp. 1100-1100).
Similar Citations
Article
McKay, Richard A.;
(2014)
“Patient Zero”: The Absence of a Patient's View of the Early North American AIDS Epidemic
Article
Werner, Georges H.;
(2009)
Histoire de certaines maladies infectieuses: leur éradication est-elle utopique ?
Book
Aliete Cunha-Oliveira;
(2018)
Para uma história do VIH/Sida em Portugal e dos 30 anos da epidemia (1983-2013)
Book
Alan Whiteside;
(2017)
HIV & AIDS: A Very Short Introduction
Article
Kazanjian, Powel;
(2014)
The AIDS Pandemic in Historic Perspective
Book
K. Pienaar;
(2016)
Politics in the Making of HIV/AIDS in South Africa
Book
Brier, Jennifer;
(2009)
Infectious Ideas: U.S. Political Responses to the AIDS Crisis
Article
García Ferrandis, Xavier;
(2013)
Epidemiological and Care Aspects of Tuberculosis in Valencia during the Spanish Civil War and the Immediate Postwar Period (1936-1941)
Book
Jacques Pépin;
(2021)
The Origins of AIDS
Book
Frank M. Snowden;
(2019)
Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present
Chapter
Dodier, Nicolas;
(2005)
L'infléchissement du travail politique autour des essais contrôlés: L'épidémie de SIDA à la fin du XXe siècle
Book
Holmberg, Scott D.;
(2008)
Scientific Errors and Controversies in the U.S. HIV/AIDS Epidemic: How They Slowed Advances and Were Resolved
Article
Tasleem J Padamsee;
(2020)
Fighting an Epidemic in Political Context: Thirty-Five Years of HIV/AIDS Policy Making in the United States
Book
Paul M. Renfro;
(2024)
The Life and Death of Ryan White: AIDS and Inequality in America
Book
Nattrass, Nicoli;
(2012)
The AIDS Conspiracy: Science Fights Back
Article
King, Nicholas B.;
(2004)
The Scale Politics of Emerging Diseases
Book
Cueto, Marcos;
(2001)
Culpa y Coraje: Historia de las Politicas Sobre el VIH/ SIDA en el Peru
Chapter
Dilger, Hansjörg;
(2012)
The (Ir)Relevance of Local Knowledge: Circuits of Medicine and Biopower in the Neoliberal Era
Article
Denis, Philippe;
(2014)
New Patterns of Disclosure: How HIV-Positive Support Group Members from KwaZulu-Natal Speak of Their Status in Oral Narratives
Article
Barreras, Ricardo E.;
Torruella, Rafael A.;
(2013)
New York City's Struggle over Syringe Exchange: A Case Study of the Intersection of Science, Activism, and Political Change
Journal of Social Issues
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
Llull: Revista de la Sociedad Española de Historia de las Ciencias y de las Técnicas
Medical History
Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Be the first to comment!