AIDS through a study of the sexual

History

At the CDC researchers had been continuing to investigate the cause of AIDS through a study of the sexual contacts of homosexual men in Los Angeles and New York. They identified a man as the link between a number of different cases and they named him "patient 0". The research appeared to confirm that AIDS was a transmittable disease, and the co-operation of "patient 0" contributed to the study.⁶⁸

Darrow was to later change his original statement, saying that he did not name the man as patient zero but rather he named him “patient O”, for “Out of California” ⁶⁹

"I called this guy Patient O... But my colleagues read it as Patient Zero."Darrow for Newsweek ⁷⁰

Whatever Darrow did, or didn’t say, in 1984 the “myth” of Patient Zero had begun. ⁷¹ See the History of 1987 page for more about Patient Zero

On April 22nd, Dr Mason of the CDC was reported as saying:

"I believe we have the cause of AIDS."

He was referring to the French virus, LAV, and he was basing his opinion on the findings made in the preceding weeks by the researchers at the Pasteur Institute who had discovered the virus the previous year.⁷²

Margaret Heckler

Just one day later, on April 23rd, the United States Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler announced that Dr. Robert Gallo of the National Cancer Institute had isolated the virus which caused AIDS, that it was named HTLV-III, and that there would soon be a commercially available test able to detect the virus with "essentially 100 percent certainty". It was a dramatic and optimistic announcement that also included:

"We hope to have a vaccine [against AIDS] ready for testing in about two years."

And it concluded with:

"yet another terrible disease is about to yield to patience, persistence and outright genius".^{73 74}

The same day patent applications were filed covering Gallo's work, but there was clearly a possibility that LAV and HTLV-III were the same virus.^{75 76} The scientific papers regarding Gallo's discovery of HTLV-III were published on 4th May.⁷⁷ By 17th May, private companies were already applying to the Department of Health & Human Services for licences to develop a commercial test, which would detect evidence of the virus in blood, a test which it had already been said would be used to screen the entire supply of donated blood in the USA.