Possible HIV outbreak in UK adult industry

the results from the 2nd test should be known at some point today

(12-04-2012 10:32 )LatexRyan Wrote:  

(11-04-2012 21:05 )mrmann Wrote:  Hopefully soon there will be a cure, or the medicine will be so good that the virus will be like having a cold. I honestly don't think we are far from these advances, but it's up to the government and drug companies of course.

Anti-retroviral drugs (which are designed to surpress the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)) are fairly easy to get a hold of in this country and having HIV is no longer a death sentence like at was in the past and like it is in other less well off parts of this world. HIV can have no effect for a long time and if you're fortunate and you don't get AIDS (which occurs when you have a nasty virus + HIV) then you can live a perfectly normal life with no outward signs that you have HIV.

True, but people still have issues with side effects from drugs, including facial wasting, which can be a tell tale sign, as well as other internal health problems. Even if they are lucky and the drugs make their symptoms very minimal, and they are technically healthy, they still have to take medicine to keep it in check, and will have social anxiety issues as well do to their appearance, if it affects it. Who can they tell? Will they tell any of their friends, or will that isolate them, since this is a contagious virus?

I have heard of some new drug, that needs to be taken only once a day, and with even less side effects than the current best drugs, so that's a good sign, and another reason why I don't think HIV will be a big deal in twenty years from now. Also, the vaccines are showing some signs of effectiveness, but I just hope a worse virus doesn't appear once HIV is eradicated!

(11-04-2012 21:05 )mrmann Wrote:  Hopefully soon there will be a cure

How far away from an effective vaccine are we? The short answer is we don't know. Research has been going on since 1981 but HIV has proven hard to conquer as it's an incredibly complex virus with many different strains.

(11-04-2012 14:49 )Scotsman Wrote:  If this one guy does test positive, they'll have to test every girl who's worked with him in God knows how long, which could be a bucketload of girls, and then if any of them test positive then every guy they've worked with will have to be tested and so on, it could go on forever.

If the person concerned used to work overseas it could be a bigger problem because some of the girls in British porn also travel to various European countries to work. It doesn't seem possible that it could go on forever though because even taken globally the porn community isn't THAT big.

(12-04-2012 08:50 )tony confederate Wrote:  

(12-04-2012 01:34 )Regenerated Wrote:  I can't see a HIV outbreak resulting in just a few months shut down. Surely it would take a lot longer to get everyone who the person has worked with checked.

There have been 4 porn industry shutdowns in California due to HIV cases and each time it was for about a month. It therefore can't take as long as you think to get those who need checking to be all checked.

Ok - I wasn't aware of the shutdowns in California - thanks for that info.

(12-04-2012 10:48 )mrmann Wrote:  [quote='LatexRyan' pid='1037276' dateline='1334223175']
[quote='mrmann' pid='1037008' dateline='1334174715']
Hopefully soon there will be a cure, or the medicine will be so good that the virus will be like having a cold.

Quote:and another reason why I don't think HIV will be a big deal in twenty years from now. Also, the vaccines are showing some signs of effectiveness, but I just hope a worse virus doesn't appear once HIV is eradicated!

HIV is manufactured from the body's own DNA and takes it's envelope from the body's own cells. Cancer is the body's own cells and look at the difficulty of finding a cure for that. If you kill the HIV or cancer cells, you kill the body's own healthy cells.

A inoculation in to healthy people wouldn't be all that affective, HIV is not like TB or small pox, because it is made from an individuals body and so all will be unique.

I read a few years ago that some prostitutes in Africa had a natural immunity to HIV, they need to find people like that and find out whats in their anti body's, but I suspect they wil be that rare as to be impracticable.

the uk's adult industry trade association has released this statement today

Quote:Press Release

London, UK – 11 April 2012

In response to the recent announcement of a UK adult performer testing positive to the initial test for HIV, AITA (the UK’s Adult Industry Trade Association) issues the statement as below:

Following the news of confirmation of HIV in initial testing and pending the results of the second test which was taken on Wednesday 11 April 2012 to confirm diagnosis (results of which are expected on Thursday 12 April) AITA has called for producers and performers to comply to:

1) Suspension of all shoots IMMEDIATELY pending the results of the second test. Your health, the health of others and the future of the industry that provides your livelihood are all at stake.

2) Should the result of the second test prove positive all shooting in the UK should be suspended until all performers are re-tested, particularly those performers who have worked directly or indirectly with the performer concerned.

3) Shooting should not resume until further notice – it is expected this will be at least 30 days to ensure any further infections have been identified.

4) All performers should use condoms with sexual partners while this process of testing takes place to avoid any risk of further spread.

AITA is in contact with the said performer and will issue updates as and when information is received on the AITA website http://www.aita.co.uk

In addition every producer that has worked with the said performer has been notified and instructed to inform performers that have worked with said performer past and present.

AITA is pleased to announce that as of the morning of Wednesday 11 April, when the above guidelines were first distributed amongst the industry, all major UK production companies have complied and ceased production until further notice.

I echo what has gone before.
When it comes to testing antibody testing is the main way to test I believe. I don't know anything about antigen testing.
From what I have read the problem with antibody testing is you have to wait for the antibodies to be produced in significant numbers before you can detect them.
This can take 3 weeks to 6 months. A lot of people will seroconvert within a month. The vast majority will seroconvert by 3 months. There will be some who take 6 months. The practice today is to give antiretroviral medication to those who may have been exposed to it if those people are in a high risk group. I think porn stars would most definitely fall into this group. If you are given these meds early then it may take a year for antibodies to show.
Basically my point is, a negative test at 3 months (with no further potential exposures during that time) is very reassuring but you really need one at 6 to be sure, and that is if you haven't been taking antiretrovirals.
Yes they are checked regularly and should be safe, but in a large group of people how can you be sure others aren't taking big risks outside the industry? It would take 3-6 months for that exposure to show so your 3 weekly tests wouldn't be good as it would be the 4th one that showed it up.
We all know it is high risk and you take your chances. Testing is good and obviously it should be done but it is not fool proof......not many things are sadly. As someone said earlier, I am surprised this kind of scare doesn't happen more often, and I hope it is just a scare, but if something can happen, then given enough chances it probably will happen sometime, like life on Earth!

(11-04-2012 17:40 )Rammyrascal Wrote:  isnt jessica actually an alias for someone?

Yes she also does porn work as Emma.

According to the latest twitterposts, the second test has come back negative - apparently Jessica was given the wrong persons blood results initially. Hope this is true and very happy for her if it is the case.

edit - been confirmed by AITA. Delighted for Jessica who has probably endured the hardest 48hrs of her life but I think it has been a bit of a wake-up call for everyone in the industry.