"Patient Zero" is the term given to the very first person who suffers from any new kind of disease or virus. If anyone is unaware about the infamous HIV Patient Zero story, this article will shed some light on it.

The story went on as follows: it was the year of 1982 when Gaëtan Dugas, working as an air steward, wrote a letter to his male lover regarding how he may have a thing called "gay cancer".

Now this story was covered by Nature in full details and it was mainly regarding how the letter showed details of a worsening illness which no one could cure. Two years later, Dugas died and after that, "gay cancer" was renamed to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Since then, he was known as the "Patient Zero" of HIV. Now, 1982 was quite a long time ago and for more than thirty years HIV was widely believed to have started from him and fuelled the shaming of homosexual men worldwide. 

Recently, a research paper was introduced and an article from Scientific American covered how they used the still-remaining immune system samples of Dugas and analyzed it. After proper research they determined how his HIV was inevitable and did not originate from him.

There were many authors - even in scholarly medical journals regarding the epidemic of aids, who boundlessly shamed Dugas in publicized articles.

An analysis done recently on genetics completely confirmed the myth being false. Scientists have also discovered how the disease originated from the Carribean in the 1970s - 12 years before Dugas had it, and it was from there that it entered the United States. 

Although Dugas is already dead, it is hoped that his name would be fully cleared up.

Tags: hiv Patient Zero Myth