The Endurance of the Carrier Narrative: 'Patient Zero', Gaetan Dugas, and the Assignment of Blame in Epidemics. (360G-Wellcome-080651_Z_06_Z)

The proposed research intends to establish the origins of the 'patient zero' concept, account for the means of its rapid cultural diffusion, and locate it within a wider historical framework. The project has four key goals. First, it aims to reconstruct the events culminating in the early 1980s epidemiological cluster study that first posited the significance of a 'patient zero'. Second, the extent to which key players, including public health officials, Randy Shilts, the news media, and the entertainment industry, were each responsible for the promotion of the 'patient zero' character will be determined. Third, efforts will be made to reconstruct Gaetan Dugas's experience as a patient, from archival research and interviews with his acquaintances, his doctors, and the public health officials who met with him. Finally, the project aims to demonstrate the cyclical nature of the 'healthy carrier' narrative underlying the 'patient zero' concept. In this regard, the project will consider the treatment, by both the media and public health officials, of Gaetan Dugas in relation to that of 'Typhoid' Mary Mallon. Newly released testimonies from the Krever Inquiry into the contamination of the Canadian blood industry will also be examined as a more recent recurrence of the narrative.