In April 1959, David Carr, a 25-year-old man from Manchester, was admitted to Manchester Royal Infirmary with an undiagnosed illness that baffled a team of three doctors and several specialists. Over the course of his twenty-week stay, his condition deteriorated alarmingly, culminating in his death at the end of August 1959.

Writing for The Lancet in October 1960, the medical team postulated that Carr's immune system had been compromised, displaying symptoms indicative of an AIDS-related illness—though this was unrecognised at the time. A post-mortem examination later revealed pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, a well-known AIDS-related complication. It wasn't until the late 1980s, with advancements in testing, that samples from Carr's case were confirmed to contain HIV, retroactively designating him as the world’s first AIDS patient.

Ho ...