1970s and 'Patient 0' HIV-1 genomes illuminate early HIV/AIDS history in North America.

By genetic analysis of HIV, Worobey, Lemey and colleagues from the social sciences "cleared" Gaëtan Dugas, a Canadian air steward, who previously had been identified by name as Patient Zero--the source of the epidemic. Unfortunately Dugas was cleared of his responsibility only after his death. One lesson that researchers drew from this was not to identify patients by name in contexts like this. Full text available from PubMedCentral at this link. Order of authorship in the original publication was Worobey, Watts, McKay...Lemey....

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)