The California Department of Health’s (CDPH) Occupational Health Branch released a report Monday concerning at least two male porn actors contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), with one likely contracting it from the other during a September Nevada film shoot.
The CDPH says that one male actor tested negative for HIV and then over a two-week period he had unprotected sex with several other male actors during two separate film shoots. During the second film shoot, he had symptoms of a viral infection.
Subsequent testing revealed he was HIV positive. Nevada health officials initiated follow-up with the sexual contacts of this actor. To date, one of the male actors from the second film shoot has
tested newly positive for HIV.
Public health investigation and laboratory results provide very strong evidence that the actor transmitted HIV to the other actor as a result of unprotected sex during the film shoot.
Health officials go on to say that the actor thought that he was “negative” for HIV at the time of the two film shoots, but in fact he was infected and probably transmitted HIV to another actor. Some adult entertainment film companies require actors to have a negative HIV test within 2 weeks prior to a film shoot.
However, very early in an HIV infection the test can be negative even though the actor really does have HIV. In this case, the actor and production company thought he was HIV-negative during filming. Shortly after his negative test, HIV levels in his body rose rapidly to where he could infect other actors through unprotected sex.
This comes after condom use laws were instituted in 2012 in Los Angeles County, the epicenter for pornography, that made porn actors wear condoms for health and safety, forced producers to make their films elsewhere. Since the passage of the law, filmmakers applying for shooting permits in the county declined from 485 in 2012 to 40 in 2013, according to an AP story.
The Free Speech Coalition (FSC), an adult industry trade group, immediately cooperated with the Department of Public Health, and called a moratorium to determine if there was any risk of transmission to performers on PASS compliant adult sets. Non-complaint shoots are one of the chief dangers of pushing the adult industry out of state, and outside the established testing protocol, they report on their blog.
What is the PASS system? The PASS system is a descendant of AIM (Adult Industry Medical), a healthcare foundation created by a performer with the support of FSC to help protect against STIs. Under the PASS system, producers and directors check to confirm that the performer is cleared to perform in the PASS database within the past fourteen days. If a performer does not have a recent test, or shows any irregularity, he or she will not be cleared to perform.
The moratorium was lifted in October.
The pro-condom law group, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation says “told you so” in a statement. “This is not AHF or supporters of condoms claiming that an HIV transmission occurred on the set of an adult film. This is California’s Department of Public Health and OSHA Occupational Health officials who vetted the performers’ blood samples with the CDC and concluded after genetic sequencing that this HIV infection occurred on set,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF). “For years adult film producers have claimed that performers who have tested HIV-positive while working in the industry did not contract HIV in the industry, but became infected through exposure in their personal lives outside and away from adult film sets. This new case puts truth to the lie that the industry has promoted year-after-year, years that sadly saw several additional performers infected while working in the porn industry.”
In his statement, Weinstein lists several other cases of HIV transmission on the set.
“There is no proof that any of these HIV infections over the past decade have not occurred on set other that the porn industry’s word, with the general public and health officials relying on the industry’s own self-reporting,” added Weinstein. “This is a tragic repeat of last year, and of 2010 as well as previous years. Won’t we ever learn?”
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