Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
BBC News - Wednesday, 4 February, 2004
Engineer Alan Plater, 59, from Norfolk, told Mr Justice Nelson that "it was like a bomb had dropped" when he discovered he had the virus in late 1996.
Mr Plater claims he contracted HIV through an intravenous injection of vitamin C given to him by a nurse at a Algerian clinic in July that year when he suffered diarrhoea.
But the judge said that he had no alternative but to dismiss the claim against Sonatrach, the oil company which ran the clinic, as the true cause of Mr Plater's HIV had not been proved.
Could not recall injections
Mr Plater told the court in London there was no other possible cause of infection except for the injection.
The judge said that Mr Plater, through no fault of his own, was unable to recall all the injections he had received over the years or the full circumstances of those he could remember.
He accepted that Mr Plater was not homosexual but he was not satisfied that he had been given a complete account of his heterosexual relationships.
Mr Plater, who is divorced, said he had only had three women partners - none of whom had been found to have HIV.
He said he was in a faithful long-term relationship.
The judge said that Sonatrach's procedure was appropriate, because needles and syringes were not reused as a matter of general procedure.
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