Porn industry shuts down with immediate effect after 'female performer' tests positive for HIV

The adult film industry in San Fernando Valley in California, announced a moratorium on the making of porn films Wednesday after an actor tested positive for HIV.
The performer was not immediately identified and officials didn't say when the positive test was recorded.
The actor's sex partners are currently being tested by doctors with Adult Production Health and Safety Services, which works with the porn industry.
X-Biz, an adult industry trade magazine, reported that the performer with the HIV-positive test is female and new to the industry says the Los Angeles Daily News.

Moratorium: The porn industry in California was shocked on Wednesday by the announcement that a performer had tested HIV positive

'The moratorium will be lifted once the risk of transmission has been eliminated,' Diane Duke, executive director of the industry trade group the Free Speech Coalition, told the 

Associated Press in an e-mail.
She added that the actor is not believed to have been infected on a film set.

 

'In fact, since 2004 there have only been two cases of performers testing positive for HIV and neither of those situations involved on-set transmission,' Duke said.
'The current situation would bring the number to three cases in nearly 10 years, not just in Los Angeles but nationwide.'

Ban: The Adult Production Health and Safety Services is currently conducting a round of tests to see if the virus has been spread through members of the industry

The industry briefly put a similar moratorium in place last year after nearly a dozen performers were infected during a syphilis outbreak.

Word of the latest moratorium quickly drew critical responses from porn industry opponents. Among them was Michael Weinstein, whose group the AIDS Healthcare Foundation successfully lobbied voters last year to adopt an ordinance requiring actors use condoms in the making of most porn films.

'How many adult film performers have to become infected with an array of preventable sexually transmitted diseases — including HIV, which is not curable — before the porn industry actually complies with the law requiring condom use,' he said in a statement.
Since the ordinance's adoption, county officials have said they are investigating one violation.

Assemblyman Isadore Hall III, who is pushing for the state to adopt a similar law, called Wednesday's news 'devastating and preventable.'
'Exposing workers to this type of harm would not be accepted in any other industry in this nation,' the Los Angeles Democrat said.

The industry, which says its audience does not want to see condoms, is fighting the Los Angeles County measure in court.

Multi-Billion Dollar Industry: The industry briefly put a similar moratorium in place last year after nearly a dozen performers were infected during a syphilis outbreak

After a federal judge ruled last week that the measure is constitutional industry officials promised to appeal.
Last year, porn star Mr. Marcus, 42, was discovered to have altered his positive syphilis test so that he could keep performing.

The porn industry imposed a 10-day moratorium in August while actors were treated and tested for the potentially lethal disease.
And in June of this year, Mr. Marcus was convicted of knowingly exposing two co-stars to syphilis and sentenced to 30 days in jail.

And in June 2004, the entire porn industry in California shut down after 4 performers tested positive for HIV, which caused 50 performers to be tested because of possible exposure.

Last year, porn star Mr. Marcus, 42, was discovered to have altered his positive syphilis test so that he could keep performing.

Since that low-point, the adult industry has worked to self-regulate and increase testing procedures for stars.

And on Friday, U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson denied the motion by the adult film industry to stop the imposition of condoms being worn during filming.
Pregerson said that data from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health provided evidence that wearing condoms was a matter of health and did not violate the First Amendment.

The data found that since 2004, the health department got reports of 2,396 cases of chlamydia, 1,389 cases of gonorrhea, and in addition, five syphilis cases among adult film performers.