Porn industry shuts down after performer tests positive to HIV

Rod Daily, left, and Cameron Bay, both adult film performers who became infected with HIV while working in the adult industry in 2013

The porn industry has ground to a halt over fears that an adult film star has HIV.

Porn's leading trade body, the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) has called for all filming to stop after the actor received a 'possible positive' test result during routine STD screening.

A statement on the organisation's website stated it wanted 'a precautionary production hold after a possible positive test for HIV by an adult performer listed in the PASS (Performer Availability Screening Services) database'.

They said that the actor, whose name has not been released, had not caught HIV on set, and insisted that they 'had not participated in any fluid exchange shoots since their last negative test.'

The porn star's positive HIV test has not yet been confirmed although a definitive result will be know within a few days.

'If it is a false positive, the hold will be lifted on Wednesday,' the statement said.

The FSC say they will begin notifying all of the porn star's past partners and will retest anyone who had come into contact with them since their last negative test.

The porn industry has been working to improve health and safety conditions for its performers after a number of scares in the past ten years and no one has caught HIV on a PASS regulated set in the past decade.

But a law that would have given California the power to prosecute porn producers who don't make their performers wear condoms, failed to pass last year.

And while greater testing in the industry has been welcomed, it is not infallible. 

In 2016, a male adult film actor in California unknowingly infected two men with HIV because the virus went undetected by lab tests, a report by the Center for Disease Control revealed. 

The then 25-year-old male was diagnosed with HIV just 22 days after he first tested negative. During this time, he had unprotected sex with a total of 12 male performers, and five other men outside of work.

The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report warned at the time that 'adult film performers and production companies...should be aware that testing alone is not sufficient to prevent HIV transmission.'

California, home to the multi-billion-dollar porn industry, has long been embroiled in a controversial debate over safe sex practices on set.

The last confirmed time two porn stars contracted HIV on set was in 2004, when most of the major production companies agreed to shut down for 60 days to prevent the virus from spreading.

And STD testing was upped to every two weeks after actor Cameron Bay and her boyfriend Rod Daily caught HIV in 2013.

Bay has called for safe sex on set, as she said that the number of HIV infections proves the industry wrong when they say testing performers for the virus and other sexually transmitted diseases is sufficient.

The actress says she was naive to trust industry STD tests and said other performers told her not to ask for condoms.

'I learned that there's always someone younger and sexier, willing to do something you're not,' Bay told the Huffington Post. 'I think we need more choices because of that. Condoms should be a choice.'

The porn industry disagrees, arguing that its own regulatory system of testing actors every 14 days is sufficient.

Actors are supposed to turn up on set with their results, and co-stars can refuse to work with an individual if they failed to get tested, or if the results came back positive for STIs.

Many actors have also spoken up against the mandatory use of condom. They say because filming can last for hours on end, this form of protection can cause uncomfortable chafing or friction burns for both men and women. 

Eric Paul Leue, the executive director of the Free Speech Coalition which represents pornography producers, said that biweekly HIV tests have successfully prevented outbreaks in more than a decade.

Instead of condoms, he supports the widespread use of a prophylactic drug called Truvada that can lower the risks for HIV-negative porn actors.

The CDC report notes that these drugs have to be taken daily, making regulations even more difficult.

Despite the most recent scare, the FSC assured adult performers that there has not been a on-set transmission of HIV in a decade on a PASS regulated set.

Porn industry rights group The Adult Performer Advocacy Committee have supported the temporary halt in filming.

'Based on the current genealogy, there is low-risk to the performer pool,' the APAC said in a statement. 'APAC will release a statement within the next few days regarding whether the production hold is called off or if a two-week moratorium is necessary,' it added.

Culled from Dailymail