Robert Rayford

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Robert Lee Rayford
BornFebruary 3, 1953
AIDS
death in the United States

Robert Lee Rayford[1] (February 3, 1953 – May 15, 1969),[2] sometimes identified as Robert R. due to his age, was an American teenager from Missouri who has been suggested to represent the earliest confirmed case of HIV/AIDS in North America. This is based on evidence published in 1988 in which the authors claimed that medical evidence indicated that he was "infected with a virus closely related or identical to human immunodeficiency virus type 1."[3] Rayford died of pneumonia,[4] but his other symptoms baffled the doctors who treated him. A study published in 1988 reported the detection of antibodies against HIV.[5] Results of testing for HIV genetic material were reported once at a scientific conference in Australia in 1999; however, the data has never been published in a peer-reviewed medical or scientific journal.

Background

2837 Delmar Boulevard (center), where the former residence of Robert Rayford once stood

Robert Rayford was born on February 3, 1953, in

African-American families such as their own.[6][7]
Not much of Rayford's personal life was disclosed.

Illness

In early 1968, Rayford, then 15 years old, admitted himself to the City Hospital in St. Louis.[4] His legs and genitals were covered in warts and sores. He also had severe swelling of the testicles and pelvic region, which later spread to his legs, causing a misdiagnosis of lymphedema.

He had grown thin and pale and suffered from shortness of breath. Rayford told the doctors that he had experienced these symptoms since at least late 1966.

Tests discovered a severe

chlamydia infection which had, unusually, spread throughout his body. Rayford declined a rectal examination request from hospital personnel,[8] and was described as uncommunicative and withdrawn.[4]

Dr. Memory Elvin-Lewis, who was assigned to his case, would recall Rayford's shy and hesitant personality: "He was the typical 15-year-old who is not going to talk to adults, especially when I'm white and he's black. He was not a communicative individual. He knew the minute I walked into the room that I wanted something more from him—more blood, more lymph fluid, more something."[6]

Rayford gave contradictory statements regarding his sexual history. At one point Rayford claimed he was "the stud of all time". At another point he claimed a young woman from his neighborhood was his only partner for sexual intercourse, and attributed his condition to sexual contact with her.[6][9]

Doctors treating Rayford suspected that he was an underage sex worker and the recipient of receptive

anal intercourse, but never considered the possibility of him being a victim of child molestation.[8][9][10] Eventually, he was moved to Barnes-Jewish Hospital (which was originally Barnes Hospital that combined with another).[1]

In late 1968 Rayford's condition seemed to stabilize, but by March 1969 his symptoms reappeared and worsened. He had increased difficulty breathing and his white blood cell count had plummeted. The doctors found that his immune system was dysfunctional. He developed a fever and died of pneumonia[4] at 11:20 pm on May 15, 1969.

Autopsy

An

AIDS-defining illness.[13]

These findings baffled the attending doctors, and a review of the case was published in the medical journal Lymphology in 1973.[14]

Later investigations

Tests

HIV (originally called "lymphadenopathy-associated virus", or LAV) was first

Western blot test found that antibodies against all nine detectable HIV proteins were present in Rayford's blood. An antigen capture assay was also reported to have identified HIV antigens in tissue samples, but not in serum.[3] In a letter to the scientific journal Nature in 1990, Robert F. Garry stated that efforts to directly detect HIV DNA were under way:[15]

"Proviral DNA has recently been detected in his tissues by PCR in collaboration with J. Sninsky and S. Kwok (Cetus Corporation, Emeryville, California) but nucleotide sequence analysis is not yet complete."

A study which reported the results of testing for HIV DNA was eventually presented nearly a decade later, as a conference abstract in 1999.[16] The abstract reports the detection of HIV genes in Rayford's samples which were very similar to the HIV IIIB isolate which was discovered in France in the 1980s, and became widely used as a laboratory reference isolate (this study has never been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal). Neither John Sninsky nor Shirley Kwok was listed as an author on the abstract. The abstract argues that laboratory contamination by the HIV IIIB isolate was unlikely because the DNA testing was done on Rayford's samples without being cultured.[16]

The last known tissue samples of Rayford were in a New Orleans lab and inadvertently destroyed during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, preventing further testing.[12]

Impact on AIDS origin research

Rayford never traveled outside the

child prostitution.[8][10]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Headline: AIDS / History / Rayford Case". Vanderbilt Television News Archive. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  2. ^ a b Gorman, Christine (November 9, 1987). "Strange Trip Back to the Future". Time. Archived from the original on March 2, 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-24.
  3. ^
    PMID 3418874
    .
  4. ^ a b c d McMichael, W. Pate (August 31, 2007). "The Pre-Pandemic Puzzle". St. Louis Magazine.
  5. ^ The Pre-Pandemic Puzzle by W. Pate McMichael August 2007 St. Louis Magazine
  6. ^ a b c Kerr, Theodore (2015). "AIDS 1969: HIV, History, and Race". Drain.
  7. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2019-09-15. Retrieved 2022-07-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. ^ a b c d Crewdson, John (October 25, 1987). "Case Shakes Theories of AIDS Origin". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2007-11-24.
  9. ^ a b Hunter, Al (May 8, 2014). "Robert Rayford: America's First AIDS Victim". The Weekly View.
  10. ^ a b "The Sea Has Neither Sense Nor Pity: the Earliest Known Cases of AIDS in the Pre-AIDS Era - Body Horrors". Discover magazine. October 22, 2012. Archived from the original on August 6, 2014. Retrieved October 17, 2014.
  11. ^ Kaposi's Sarcoma, USA Today, archived from the original on 2012-02-16
  12. ^ a b Hendrix, Steve (May 15, 2019). "A mystery illness killed a boy in 1969. Years later, doctors believed they’d learned what it was: AIDS.". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
  13. ^ Falco, Miriam (Managing Director) (April 19, 2018). "What Is Kaposi Sarcoma?". American Cancer Society. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
  14. PMID 4766275
    .
  15. PMID 2215674
    .
  16. ^ a b "XIIth International Congress of Virology Abstract". 2007-05-03. Archived from the original on 2007-05-03. Retrieved 2016-11-30.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  17. ^ Gina Kolata (October 28, 1987). "Boy's 1969 Death Suggests Aids Invaded U.S. Several Times". The New York Times. Retrieved February 13, 2012.
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