science · 25 April 1959 · 65 years ago
In 1959, a 25-year-old patient, David Carr, an apprentice printer, entered the Royal Manchester Infirmary in England, with unusual symptoms, including purplish skin lesions, fatigue and weight loss. He died 4½ months later for reasons not then understood. His preserved tissue samples were examined in 1990. In a letter to the journal The Lancet, (7 Jul 1990) Gerald Corbitt, director of clinical virology at the hospital, suggested this could be the earliest known AIDS case. In 1995, the journal Nature, reported that the results were anomolous: the putative HIV detected was of a “relatively modern strain.” In the 20 Jan 1996 Lancet, the earlier claim was retracted, accepting the sample had been contaminated. Having had doubts since 1992, Corbitt said he regarded the analysis as no more than a trial of PCR [polymerase chain reaction] on archival material. Belatedly, the report of a possible early AIDS case was clarified.
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