His name was Gaetan Dugas, a French-Canadian airline steward. Before his death in 1984, Dugas estimated that he had had sexual liaisons with 2,500 partners in New York and Californian bathhouses, rest rooms, bars and motels. Even after he had been told by doctors that he had this fatal sexually-transmitted disease, he continued to infect dozens of partners. 'I've got gay cancer', he would tell them afterwards, perversely enjoying the merging of sex and death.