Porn industry healthcare clinic not cooperating, public health officials say
[UPDATE: At least 16 previously unpublicized HIV cases in porn film performers, public health officials say]
Public health officials said today they have had no cooperation from the adult entertainment industry health clinic that recently confirmed a porn actress had tested positive for HIV, hampering their efforts to investigate how she contracted the virus.
The Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, a San Fernando Valley-based clinic, confirmed the positive test result to The Times on Wednesday. Despite requests from the county and state, AIM officials have not released the actress' name or provided the name of the production company or companies where she had worked.
“I don’t think we have the degree of cooperation that we would like in cases like this,” said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, Los Angeles County health officer. “We’d like a little more proactive cooperation.”
Fielding said it is routine for the county to conduct an investigation in cases of disease transmission at the workplace.
AIM officials have told county officials seeking details that they are not required to notify the county until seven days after receiving a confirmatory test, Fielding said. He said AIM said the confirmatory test is not yet complete.
The slow response from AIM – along with publicized comments from clinic representatives downplaying the incident and saying it is not a “major event” – has worried health officials who fear that little has changed in the five years since an HIV outbreak among porn performers shut down production in the multibillion dollar industry for a month.
In the 2004 outbreak, a porn actor spread the virus to three actresses he had worked with and another unrelated performer also tested positive. A series of public hearings prompted legislation to force safer practices, but the bill quietly expired without a vote.
--Kimi Yoshino and Rong-Gong Lin II
Related story:
Porn actress tests positive for HIV
From the archives:
2 HIV Cases Put a Scare into Porn
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EDITOR'S PICKS:
California can't afford the shut-down of the porn industry; can you REALLY see Ron Jeremy working the deli counter at Pavilions?
Posted by: August | June 11, 2009 at 04:45 PM
Sounds like the state trying to make AIM health the bad guy.
Let's face it California wants the porn tax dollars and because of this does not regulate thousands of porn shoots per year that shoot without condoms.
This would be a nightmare to regulate in this day of home made porn and video cameras everywhere and tube sites etc.
People get HIV everyday. It is most likely that this woman didn't get this at work. And its very unlikely that she passed it on at work.
AIM will continue to do their job. The State will continue to pretend to do its job.
Move on.
Posted by: Mr Rodgers | June 11, 2009 at 05:22 PM
Problems Problems Problems. Some ask, how will the future generation judge our actions of today? I say they will be reading textbooks about the fall of another great society, The United States of America.
Posted by: Jet | June 11, 2009 at 05:25 PM
That's it. I'm not doing any more porn shoots or porn stars.
Posted by: Pornocopia | June 11, 2009 at 09:52 PM
Porn used to be a multibillion dollar industry. With the bittorrent and readily available free porn (like entire scenes) on YouTube-like porn sites, it's probably more like a multimillion dollar industry today.
But who cares right? This state is so broke that the prostitutes in Sacramento will gladly take from the prostitutes in the San Fernando Valley.
Posted by: the seeker | June 12, 2009 at 03:29 PM
I can't wait to graduate law school and pass the bar. I've got enough law suits ahead of me in my industry to keep me buisy for two life times!
Posted by: Anita Cannibal | June 13, 2009 at 05:15 AM
The HIV MILF’s stage name is Muse. She is a 42 year old relative new comer to on screen movies. But she is well known in the gay/swinger community. She has dated Tom Moore (the producer that cast her in her last film) off and on for years and has had sex with a lot of the gay performers like christianx.
This problem is much deeper than people think/know. The industry is trying to keep this as quiet as possible.
Posted by: hollywood | June 29, 2009 at 12:47 PM