Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Two porn companies postpone filming over HIV test

Wicked Pictures logo.jpgAn actor's positive HIV test has caused two of the US adult film industry's largest studios to postpone filming.

Wicked Pictures and Vivid Entertainment told The Los Angeles Times that production had stopped as a precaution.

... This is not the first time the billion dollar industry has faced closures. In 2004, an HIV outbreak spread panic in the industry and briefly shut down productions at several California studios. Up to 14 people were believed to have been infected during on-camera sex with a male actor. ...Federal law requires that all porn actors are tested for HIV 30 days before the start of filming.

via BBC News - Two porn companies postpone filming over HIV test.

 

The identity and gender of the HIV-positive actor have not been released by the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, the clinic where the case was discovered. The clinic was working to identify and test on-screen partners of the actor.

Since the 2004 outbreak, 25 cases of HIV have been discovered at the AIM clinic and at least 8 of those were adult film performers, said Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, the communicable disease director of the Los Angeles County Public Health Department.

County public health officials and state occupational health officials have said the widespread lack of condom use on porn sets puts performers at risk of contracting HIV and other diseases. Adult film producers have said viewers find condoms to be a turnoff.

via GoogleNews

Reducing the risk:
Women who apply a virus-stifling vaginal gel in the hours before and after sexual intercourse can reduce their risk of contracting the HIV virus by almost 40 per cent, a much-anticipated study reveals. ...

“We now have a product that potentially can alter the epidemic trends and save millions of lives,” said Quarraisha Abdool Karim, associate director of the Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) in Durban.

She led the research team along with her husband, Salim Abdool Karim, a researcher at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban.

While a 40-per-cent risk reduction might not seem like a lot, the potential impact is staggering given the enormity of the HIV-AIDS epidemic and the fact that it hits women disproportionately hard in large parts of the world.

... A larger trial of the drug involving 5,000 participants is currently under way, but results are not expected before 2013.

via GlobeandMail

Review of work towards a HIV vaccine here:
http://pathmicro.med.sc.edu/lecture/hiv12a.htm

More recently:
Ahead of the Aids Vaccine 2010 conference starting in Atlanta on 28 September, IRIN/PlusNews spoke to Mitchell Warren, executive director of the Aids Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, about the future of HIV vaccine research and development ... Tremendous progress. Over the past year, scientists have identified neutralising antibodies against HIV, which are a fundamental building block for developing a vaccine.

via Guarduk

... preliminary evidence suggests that HVTN 505 “does induce better immune responses; it could not only prevent infection but also modulate infection after someone is exposed to the virus.”

via UAB.edu

 

5 comments:

samantha said...

Im a female that was in the industry,I was lured by money and the promise of something better for my life.a lot of owners in this industry rk media, realitykings "icey mike" basically lure or have other females lure young girls into the industry.Its saddening that in this case its a death sentence,its also widely known that the owners and managers "interview" the new girls with no protection whatsoever .I would wonder what there thinking now with aids on the radar again.

Xeno said...

Samantha, when you were first going into it would you have listened to someone who was in once, someone like yourself now? If so, you may be able to get on a talk show or write a book and dispel some myths. You might even save some lives since HIV kills more people in this industry than most others.

james said...

i worked for a brief while for some florida companies and did a small time in l.a. bottom line is we all know its risky working in porn and hangin with that crowd.you end up partyin after shoots and probably doing things we shouldnt.especially after drinking,kind of alters our inhibitions and memory.

john said...

wow ...original post .....bravoo...keep it this way..

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