Journo uncovered secret identity of ‘Patient Zero’
A WELSH journalist has spoken out about the emotional experience of being part of the team that uncovered the secret identity of the first person in the UK believed to have died after contracting Aids.
Know for four decades as only ‘Patient Zero’, John Eaddie’s story was told in a documentary on ITV last Thursday.
Paul Brand, UK editor for ITV News, joined GMB hosts Ben Shepherd and Susanna Reid to explain why it has taken some 40 years to learn Zero’s real name.
Paul, who grew up in Bridgend, said: “As I say in the documentary, many of these early patients were deliberately forgotten because of the stigma and shame. We wanted John to be remembered.
“The only real record of him until now was in the Lancet Medical Journal in 1981.
“In December of that year, there was this mysterious note that the doctors had placed into the journal saying that had been a patient who passed away, who was a gay man that had travelled to America, and he’d returned with these symptoms that were similar to the symptoms affecting men in San Francisco and New York at the time.
“More specifically this rare form of pneumonia – pneumocystis pneumonia – which was later identified as a tell-tale sign of Aids.
“But even in this record, there was no mention of Aids because it hadn’t even been invented as a term at that point, it wasn’t well understood enough.
“And so until now, he has been known as ‘Patient Zero’, or ‘the Brompton patient’ because he died in the Royal Brompton Hospital, but now we can finally call him by another name.”
Ken Dee, who was a friend of John, also joined the early-morning talkshow to reminisce about the memories they made together.
“His name was John Eaddie, he was 49,” the ITV journalist explained. “He ran a guest house in Bournemouth, he was a great friend to people like Ken.”
Ken said: “I didn’t see him at all during the time he’d been sick. We’d heard that he was sick. He was breathless a lot of the time, which I was told by his friend, but course back then we didn’t know about Aids or anything, so we just assumed he was ill because he had a cold.
“Being breathless could be anything, we had no idea what it was going to lead to.”
Ken also explained that the hotel, St Michael’s Guest House, was at the time considered a safe haven for gay people.
“We went mostly on a Sunday when the clubs closed as they did at 3 o’clock, and it was some place to go and you could feel safe and secure.
“John was very good at looking after all the young boys that stayed there.”
The ITV News documentary Tonight, follows Paul and his team of journalists as they go back in time to find out more about John.
“We trawled through hundreds of death records – thousands of death records, in fact – just to get the match with John,” the former ITV political correspondent said.
“There was only one patient who actually died of pneumocystis pneumonia in 1981, so we could really track him down.
“It was a really long, slow process, and as Ken knows, we were desperately trying to hunt for a photo of him, because John actually wasn’t the kind of guy who threw himself in front of the camera.
“He was more often taking the photos of other people. So, it was months before we finally – in fact, only about 10 days ago – got those two photos that we have in the documentary of John Eaddie.
“That was the most emotional moment – being able to put a face to that name was incredible.”
Speaking again about his friend, Ken revealed: “He was a charming host.
“I think what I remember as well is that even when a guest came in for the first time, he would remember you and he’d remember your name, so when you went back, he would introduce you to people.
“You felt that everybody knew you, and you knew everybody else.”
Searching for Patient Zero: Britain’s Aids Tragedy – Tonight is available to watch on ITV Hub.