The first comprehensive genomic study of samples collected from HIV patients prior to 1981 has cleared the name of Gaëtan Dugas, a Canadian HIV patient who was widely referred to as “Patient Zero” and charged with bringing the virus to North America. Instead, the analysis suggested that HIV arrived in New York City from Haiti around 1970 before spreading around the U.S.
“Even though the samples come from the late 1970s, an early time point long before anyone noticed AIDS, [they] contain a large amount of genetic diversity—so much genetic diversity that they could not have arisen from the late 1970s,” study coauthor Michael Worobey of the University of Arizona told reporters during a press briefing this week (October 25). “It’s direct evidence of many years of circulation of the virus in the United States before HIV and AIDS were finally recognized.”
Embryonic mouse neurons can be coaxed into integrating ...
