AIDS: Gaetan Dugas, The "Patient Zero" That Never Was

To his friends, family, and colleagues, he was a warm and caring young man, filled with a vibrant Joie de Vivre. But, to the wider world, he became the facer of reckless irresponsibility, a caricature, the man who spread AIDS across the US, from California to New York. His name was Gaetan Dugas. To the rest of the world, he was simply known as "Patient Zero." In observance of World AIDS Day, Behn and Carls reexamine the controversy surrounding him. In speaking for Gaetan Dugas, they attempt to also speak for the 36 million men, women, and children, who have died from HIV related illnesses across the world since 1981.