AIDS Patient Loses Lawsuit

A 36 year old female AIDS patient, who sued the government arguing that health officials were negligent of not notifying her of the results of three AIDS tests, lost a lawsuit at the Supreme Court. The woman, while working as a prostitute, received an HIV positive test result from the National Health Institute (NHI) in 1987.
She violated regulations that require patients to receive tests periodically and instead continued to work as a prostitute in other regions including Cheju Island and Chonnam province. During 1991 to 1993, she had three different AIDS tests but did not receive the results, although they were negative for the presense of the HIV virus. In 1994, believing she already had AIDS, she moved in with another male AIDS patient.
In May 1995, she read all of her AIDS test data and discovered that three of the 13 tests were HIV negative. She concluded that she contracted the disease during her co-habitation with the other AIDS patient. Her decision to live with an AIDS sufferer was impaired because the government did not notify her of these negative test results. She sued the government in, February, 1997.
The Supreme Court said in its October 19 ruling, 'The government could not care for her health effectively because she was out of official management controls. Furthermore, the government does not have a duty to compare all test results of patients.'