Health officials in West Palm Beach, Fla.,...

Health officials in West Palm Beach, Fla., believe a weightlifter testing positive for exposure to AIDS caught the virus from an infected hypodermic needle used for anabolic steroids injections.

In what is thought to be the nation’s first such documented case, Palm Beach County health officials said they do not know whether the unidentified weightlifter, married and in his early 20s, has developed acquired immune deficiency syndrome. He learned that he had been exposed to the virus last year through a screening program by his employer.

Vickie Pryor, an AIDS surveillance coordinator, said health officials believe the case is the first in the country in which the AIDS virus was passed from one steroids user to another through a shared needle.