Patient zero and the making of the AIDS epidemic

447 Pages·2018·3.652 MB·English

by  McKay, Richard A

Patient Zero and the Making
of the AIDS Epidemic

Patient Zero and the Making
of the AIDS Epidemic
richard a. mck ay
the university of chicago press chicago and london
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2017 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical
articles and reviews. For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press,
1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2017
Printed in the United States of America
26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 06381- 2 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 06395- 9 (paper)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 06400- 0 (e- book)
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226064000.001.0001
Bill Russell’s “Epitaph for the Sexual Revolution” is reprinted with permission from
Samuel French, Inc.
Portions of the research presented in this book fi rst appeared in Richard A. McKay, “‘ Patient
Zero’: The Absence of a Patient’s View of the Early North American AIDS Epidemic,”
Bulletin of the History of Medicine 88, no. 1 (Spring 2014): 161– 94, © 2014 The Johns
Hopkins University Press.
Interviews listed in the appendix are from Richard A. McKay, 2007 and 2008, Imagining
Patient Zero: Interviews about the History of the North American AIDS Epidemic,
© Richard A. McKay and The British Library, Reference C1491.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: McKay, Richard Andrew, 1978– author.
Title: Patient zero and the making of the AIDS epidemic / Richard A. McKay.
Description: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2017018054 | ISBN 9780226063812 (cloth : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780226063959 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226064000 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: aids (Disease)—North America—History. | Epidemics—North  America.
| AIDS (Disease)—North America—Historiography. | Dugas, Gaétan, 1952–1984. |
AIDS (Disease)—Patients.
Classifi cation: LCC RA643.86.N7 M46 2017 | DDC 362.19697/920097—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017018054
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48– 1992
(Permanence of Paper).
what’s your name i’m not casting aspersions
what’s your sign or condemning diversions
what’s your disease just a prudent inspection
to compare your infection
i saw you standing there with mine
pretty as you please
and couldn’t help wondering i’m in no position
which of these to judge your condition
affl icts you: or condemn you
and call you a sleaze
sores around the mouth
or further south but before we’re encased
swelling of the joints in something debased
or other points please tell me
lesions or lumps what’s your disease
blisters or bumps
or feeling generally queasy Bill Russell, “Epitaph for
from being too easy the Sexual Revolution,”
Christopher Street,
seems everyone has something December 1982
and is avoiding something more
from the saints among us
to those who are hor-
monally imbalanced
and can’t get enough
of that funky stuff

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations xiii
chapter 0. Introduction: “He Is Still Out There” 1
chapter 1. What Came Before Zero? 42
chapter 2. The Cluster Study 77
chapter 3. “Humanizing This Disease” 139
chapter 4. Giving a Face to the Epidemic 186
chapter 5. Ghosts and Blood 246
chapter 6. Locating Gaétan Dugas’s Views 289
Epilogue: Zero Hour— Making Histories of the North American
AIDS Epidemic 354
Appendix: Oral History Interviews 377
Bibliography 379
Index 419

Acknowledgments
Ia m greatly indebted to my funding agencies, without whose fi nancial
support this work would not have been possible. These include the
J. Armand Bombardier Foundation for an Internationalist Fellowship
and the Wellcome Trust for a master’s studentship— both of which sup-
ported the early stages of this research. The bulk of the project was made
possible with a generous award from the Wellcome Trust (080651) and
support from the University of Oxford’s Clarendon Fund. Travel awards
from Green Templeton College, the American Association for the His-
tory of Medicine, and the Canadian Society for the History of Medi-
cine also helped enable me to visit North America for research trips and
conferences. In addition, research fellowships from the Economic and
Social Research Council (PTA- 026– 27– 2838) and the Wellcome Trust
(098705) provided opportunities for further research and writing.
For their early support and enthusiasm, I owe a great debt to Gareth
Davies and Sloan Mahone. Their thoughtful questions and insightful
feedback have improved this book immeasurably. At times when mat-
ters appeared particularly bleak, their encouragement made all the dif-
ference. Also heartening were discussions with Allan Brandt, Dorothy
Porter, George Rousseau, Judith Leavitt, Virginia Berridge, Margaret
Pelling, Pietro Corsi, Jason Szabo, Jacalyn Duffi n, Naomi Rogers, and
John Harley Warner. For their wonderful early teaching that helped put
me on this path, I will always be grateful to Betty Anne Rivers Wang
and the late Jerry Falk in South Surrey, British Columbia.
I would like to recognize the generous time and effort put in by each
of my interviewees, whose trust and heartfelt reminiscences have en-
riched my work tremendously. I hope that I have succeeded in represent-
ing their views accurately and, where our interpretations have diverged,