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Porn actor sparks health fears after 'contracting HIV on film set while not wearing a condom'
Porn actor sparks health fears after 'contracting HIV on film set while not wearing a condom'
(35 minutes later)
Public health officials in California issued an alert today after finding “very strong evidence” that a pornographic actor became infected with HIV on a film set as a result of unprotected sex.
A US porn actor has tested positive for HIV, which he likely contracted as a result of unprotected sex during a film shoot in Nevada.
The Department of Public Health said the man tested positive for the virus, that can lead to Aids in the final stages of the disease, after having “unprotected sex” with several other male actors during two separate film shoots in Nevada.
On Monday, the Department of Public Health in neighbouring California issued an alert to say there was “very strong evidence” the performer was infected on set.
The actor, who has not been named to protect his identity, is said to have tested negative before the shoot but the alert states that a test can show up as negative in the early stages “even though the actor really does have HIV.”
The actor reportedly tested negative for the virus, which causes AIDS, before taking part in two film shoots that involved unprotected sex with a number of other male performers. “During the second film shoot, he had symptoms of a viral infection,” the alert said. “The actor went to a clinic and had another blood test that showed he had recently become infected with HIV.”
“During the second film shoot, he had symptoms of a viral infection,” the alert states. “The actor went to a clinic and had another blood test that showed he had recently become infected with HIV.”
Another actor from the second film shoot has also tested positive for HIV, which health officials said was “probably transmitted” by the first actor. “The actor and production company thought he was HIV-negative during filming,” the alert went on. “Shortly after his negative test, HIV levels in his body rose rapidly to where he could infect other actors through unprotected sex.”
Another actor from the second shoot has since tested positive for HIV and laboratory results show that he “probably transmitted” the virus to the other man, according to the health department.
The last recorded incident of a porn performer being infected with HIV on set was in 2004, after which the US adult entertainment industry introduced a regime of monthly STD testing for its actors. In 2012, voters in LA County – the traditional hub of porn production – approved a measure requiring adult performers to wear condoms during shoots.
A California-based trade group for the adult film industry declined to comment to requests made by Associated Press.
Reluctant to conform to the new rule, known as “Measure B”, many porn companies moved production elsewhere, notably to nearby Ventura County and Las Vegas. The number of adult filmmakers applying for permits in LA County plummeted from 485 in 2012 to just 40 in 2013.
“It’s happened before, it’s happened now, and it will happen in the future,” said Michael Weinstein, president of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “The big lie the industry has been saying all these years, that there are no on-set transmissions, has been proven to be untrue.”
“The big lie the industry has been saying all these years, [that] there are no on-set transmissions, has been proven to be untrue,” Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which backed Measure B, told the Associated Press. “It’s happened before, it’s happened now, and it will happen in the future.”
Pornographic film actors in Los Angeles County have been required to wear condoms since legislation passed in 2012 in the face of lobbying from the porn industry who say that having actors use condoms would apparently disrupt with the audience’s suspension of disbelief.
They also claim that HIV testing is required every 14 days, an increase made last year from the previous once a month after a porn actress using the name Cameron Bay contracted the virus.
The last confirmed on-set HIV transmissions were in 2004 when actor Darren James had caught it from having unprotected sex with a porn actress in Rio de Janeiro. It is not confirmed if any had been infected by him.
Around 27 porn stars died from infection during the peak of an outbreak between 1985 and 1989.
“Whatever unique message plaintiffs might intend to convey by depicting condomless sex, it is unlikely that viewers of adult films will understand that message,” Judge Susan P. Graber wrote in the ruling.
Several porn-making companies moved their set-ups out of the county to dodge the safety requirement with the number of permits to make adult films has plummeted from 485 two years ago to 40 last year.
