LOS ANGELES
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A porn industry trade group has placed a moratorium on U.S. productions of adult sex films after one performer received a preliminary positive test for infection by the virus that causes AIDS.
The suspension, which began on Thursday, marks at least the third consecutive summer that porn productions have been shut down because of performers who tested positive for a sexually transmitted disease.
The online notice posted by the Los Angeles-based Free Speech Coalition did not identify the latest performer in question and said results from a confirmatory HIV test had yet to be completed.
The group said its next steps would be to establish a timeline for possible exposure, identify any of the performer's recent partners and conduct additional tests.
Under the group's own health screening procedures, a moratorium is deemed to be warranted if any performer who tests positive has worked with anyone else from two weeks prior to his or her last negative HIV test to the date the positive result came back.
Filming cannot resume before all such partners have been notified and tested.
The industry group was expected to have an update on the situation Friday, according to spokeswoman and membership director Joanne Cachapero.
The coalition also imposed a moratorium in August 2013 after an actress was found to be infected with HIV and renewed the suspension the following month after another performer tested positive.
In August 2012 a moratorium was put into effect following several cases of syphilis among adult film actors were reported.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a group that has pushed for a state law requiring porn actors to wear condoms during sex scenes, says adult film performers are 10 times more likely to contract a sexually transmitted disease than the general public.
The Free Speech Coalition insists there is no evidence to suggest on-set transmission of HIV, as opposed to transmission from off-camera sexual contact.
Voters in Los Angeles County, which had long been the center of the U.S. porn film industry, last year approved a ballot initiative to require porn actors to wear condoms on the set.
Proponents complain the measure has largely gone unenforced, even as a majority of adult film production is believed to have moved out of the county since the measure's passage.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Bill Trott)
Source : http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/healthNews/~3/OEDbOdacj1s/story01.htm