The original researchers tried to clarify that they never thought "Patient O" was the source of the epidemic, but by the time the "Patient Zero" meme got traction in the media, it was too late.

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A typo skewed the history of HIV in the US and vilified “Patient Zero”
Genetic data shows HIV came to US around 1970—and not in “Patient Zero”
Beth Mole - 10/26/2016

A damning myth about the origins of HIV in North America spun out of a single “ambiguous oval,” according to the authors of a new genetic study on the virus.

The study, published today in Nature, uses reconstructed genetic sequences to show that the virus landed on the continent around 1971, a full decade before it was discovered in 1981 and identified as a retrovirus in 1983. And the man vilified for having delivered it to the United States, a French Canadian airline steward named Gaëtan Dugas, aka Patient Zero, had nothing to do with its arrival, the study authors report. In fact, Dugas’ moniker “Patient Zero” was actually a misinterpretation of the identifier “Patient O” used in a dataset for an AIDS cluster study centered in California. Patient O was meant to signify that he was a patient from Outside California.

In that early 1980s cluster study, researchers tracked down Dugas after several HIV/AIDS patients reporting have sex with him. The detective work allowed the researchers to link sexual activity with the virus’ spread. However, the study was published with the now infamous number rather than the letter, locking the misnomer into the scientific literature and history books.

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http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/10/a-typo-skewed-the-history-of-hiv-in-the-us-and-vilified-an-innocent-man/