HIV widow sues

A widow who caught the HIV virus after her husband received a contaminated blood transfusion brought poisoning charges yesterday against the former Socialist prime minister, Laurent Fabius, and the former secretary of state for health, Edmond Herve, AFP reports from Paris.

Claire Duplessis-Nicolai and her sons Olivier and Herve brought the action for 'complicity in poisoning' against the two ministers, alleging they did nothing to trace recipients of blood transfusions even though they knew there was a danger of transmission of the virus, which can result in Aids, to sexual partners.