Genetic evidence exonerates flight attendant blamed for bringing HIV to the United States

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 30 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. The new evidence comes from two caches of serum samples taken from gay men in New York City in 1978 and 1979, and in San Francisco in 1978. (Serum is blood with the red and white blood cells removed.)

The men were participating in a study of hepatitis B, which was prevalent in the gay community at the time.

HIV antibodies were found in samples from both cities.

The researchers then were able to cobble together the full HIV genomes of several RNA samples.