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Chapter 16 - A False Villain, a Genuine Hero

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2021

Jacques Pépin
Jacques Pépin
Affiliation:
Université de Sherbrooke, Canada
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Summary

Chapter 16 explores the fate of two individuals who left their mark on the history of AIDS, but for very different reasons. Gaétan Dugas, a French Canadian airline steward, was falsely accused of being the man who brought the virus to the USA and of having deliberately infected dozens of other gay men in some kind of morbid vengeance. This ‘false villain’ was eventually exonerated by evolutionary biologists who succeeded in characterising Dugas’ own virus. The life of Jonathan Mann, a visionary humanist who founded the World Health Organization’s special programme on AIDS, illustrates the beginning of the international battle against HIV/AIDS in the late 1980s. A parallel is drawn between Mann and Rieux, the main character in Albert Camus’ novel The Plague.

Keywords

Jonathan MannProjet SidaWorld Health OrganizationGaétan Dugaspatient zeroRandy Shilts
Type
Chapter
Information
The Origins of AIDS , pp. 320 - 331
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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