“Patient Zero”: who was the doctor who discovered the cause of the first HIV epidemic in the USSR

The main role in the series went to the representative of the acting dynasty, one of the most beloved actors of the generation, Nikita Efremov. He played Dmitry Goncharov, an epidemiologist from Moscow who came to the capital of the Kazakh ASSR to deal with an outbreak of a strange infection in a children’s hospital. Goncharov has a real prototype – this specialist always works according to his profile!

Dry facts: in 1988, the first HIV epidemic in the USSR occurred in Elista. The reason is medical negligence, the victims are 75 children and 4 adult women. Shock, lack of information, denial of the authorities (“There cannot be such a disease in the USSR!”) and the savage hostility of society towards the sick…

Much was written about this story in the newspapers of the time: the collapse of the USSR was near, information was spreading more and more freely. However, many data were hidden or distorted, many documents were hidden. Nevertheless, the perpetrators of this tragedy and the course of its development are now quite clear. These data formed the basis of the new project, the screenplay of which was written by Oleg Malovichko.

The seven-episode series “Patient Zero” according to the laws of a social detective tells the story of the search for the starting point of the epidemic of the virus – the person who delivered HIV to the USSR. In preparation for filming, the group traveled to Elista and spoke extensively with real event attendees whom they managed to find.

The creators insist: it is not a documentary, but a spectator’s film, a story about human destinies, and not a second-by-second reproduction of real events. Nevertheless, historical figures appear in the frame, and the main characters have real prototypes.

The character of the series Dmitry Goncharov, played by Nikita Efremov, is the head of the Moscow laboratory at the Institute for Research in Epidemiology. Goncharov has a problem: he comes from an influential family. He was promoted to a position at the research institute by his father, who holds a position in the Ministry of Health, so few people take Dmitry seriously. And it’s a monstrous injustice, because he really is an excellent specialist who knows how to do his job. Belonging to the elite of Soviet society did not destroy his moral qualities.

Risking big, Goncharov fights for the publicity of the drama, enters into dangerous opposition to the upper management, defends his point of view and does his best to help the victims.

Despite the fact that the creators of “Patient Zero” they themselves do not name specific people from whom the heroes of the series are written off, they are sure on the web that Dmitry Goncharov is Vadim Pokrovsky, who was directly involved in the medical investigation of the first Soviet HIV epidemic in Elista and solved the mystery of “Patient Zero” (how – we will not tell in this article, because it will turn out to be a spoiler for the series).

Vadim Pokrovsky, at the end of the 80s of the last century, a young infectious disease specialist, was one of the first to study HIV, which was discovered in foreign students. Therefore, in the “Elistinsky case” he turned out to be the main expert, and in the end he got to the bottom of the truth. Vadim was the son of the USSR’s chief epidemiologist, Valentin Pokrovsky, but this, like Dmitry Goncharov, hindered him rather than helped – at least at the start of the investigation.

Today, Vadim Valentinovich is an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, one of the best domestic medical specialists in HIV and AIDS. He is not a show business man, so he did not comment on the series itself or the role of Nikita Efremov. Even if it would be very interesting for us to know his opinion – one can imagine how much the authors of Patient Zero would like to hear it!

Photo: Valery Khristoforov/TASS