Editing Gaëtan Dugas (section)

==1984 cluster study==
[[File:AIDS index case graph.svg|upright=1.5|thumb|A 1984 paper<ref name="Auerbach1984"/> linked 40 AIDS patients by sexual contact. Of those patients, Dugas was the first to experience an onset of symptoms of AIDS.  In the above graph, Dugas is represented by the number 0. Because Dugas was very forthcoming in helping researchers, Michael Worobey concludes there may be [[sampling bias|ascertainment bias]] in the study.<ref name="npr.org"/>]]
A [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]] (CDC) study published in ''[[The American Journal of Medicine]]'' in 1984 titled ''Cluster of Cases of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome'' examined the sexual contacts of gay men infected with AIDS to determine if their histories were consistent with the hypothesis that AIDS was caused by an infectious agent. A graph included with the paper traced the sequence of infection among 40 men and labelled one of the nodes as "Patient 0" (with other nodes including the place of residence and a number indicating the sequence in which they developed AIDS symptoms, such as "NY 14").<ref name="Auerbach1984"/> The paper later stated:
{{blockquote|If the infectious-agent hypothesis is true, Patient 0 may be an example of a "carrier" of such an agent. He had had sexual contact with eight other AIDS patients and was the possible source of AIDS for at least three of them. Two of these three men had been his partners before he had overt signs of Kaposi's sarcoma.}}

The researchers later stated they had originally intended to designate Dugas as "Patient O", with "O" standing for "Out-of-California" but at some point it was changed to a "0".<ref name="Macleans" />