Possible HIV outbreak in UK adult industry

(11-04-2012 15:25 )SOCATOA Wrote:  Lets hope its a false alarm, or there is going to be lots of grief.

There are false alarms in 15 cases out of every thousand, so this could be one but it's just not very likely.

Simply observe an episode of dogging diaries, for example, to witness unprotected sex - vaginal and anal.

There is something to be said for ones own responsibility with these matters, but also there should be a great onus on the partner as well as the director, producer and the people funding the filming of porn - to insist on the use of contraception during penetrative scenes.

It does not take 5 seconds to whip a johnny off to fire a hot load over the willing recipient.

Do not take this as condemnation (should that be condomnation?) of the parties involved in the acting and filming of unprotected sex scenes, going against the norm is a big step to take. Perhaps it does take something like this incident to remind all involved of the responsibilities they have to one another, as well as those watching - as role models.

*Clarification :

I just checked back and it seems the original warning stated an adult performer was tested positive, not a male performer.

Apologies for my mis-reading/mis-remembering earlier

wasnt just you, when this first emerged on twitter etc, it was all saying a male performer

If it is true (and I hope it isn't) I don't see how you can get around a shutdown of at least a few months. They are going to have to try to find the source of the infection (and if she has been escorting that could be really difficult), you then have to go through everyone she has worked with, their partners and so on, so the number of potential victims could be huge and the dormant nature of the virus means that it will be at least a few months before everyone can guarantee a clean bill of health.

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.

This is so sad. Protection in this industry is a must. Wether we like seeing condoms on guys or not is neither here nor there - these are people's lives and they have every right to be safe, not sorry. What a sad, sad piece of news this is. I feel for the person concerned, I really do. I imagine there's a lot of feeling of helplessness right now.

(12-04-2012 00:34 )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.

(11-04-2012 20:05 )mrmann Wrote:  They will then have unprotected sex with the other actor/actress, and give it to them as well.

No, HIV is nowhere near as contagious as you think. It's not passed on very often during 'normal' sex.

I read something about the certifications last night.

The certs are often done at standard NHS clinics (the test is free, but a certificate costs). The cert is considered valid for a month from time of test (i.e. 4 weeks) but the cert itself takes maybe a week to arrive, so is valid for 3 weeks from time of arrival, so testing is typically done every 3 weeks to ensure a valid cert is held. This is a full STD test as well as HIV.

So I guess if people have just been tested, or get re-tested now, then test again in 3 weeks, and again 3 weeks later, if all those tests are clear, you can pretty much say they are clean and can safely work. That's a 6 week shutdown, so long as they have those 3 clear certs to show.

(12-04-2012 08:59 )chris535i Wrote:  

(11-04-2012 20:05 )mrmann Wrote:  They will then have unprotected sex with the other actor/actress, and give it to them as well.

No, HIV is nowhere near as contagious as you think. It's not passed on very often during 'normal' sex.

While it's true that HIV infection via 'normal' sex, and even via anal sex, is not as common as people may think, it is nevertheless a very real and serious risk, and should not be so easily dismissed, especially for those who work within the sex industry.

An interesting link was provided on the bgafd forums to the US Centre for Disease Control statistics for HIV infection :

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml...1.htm#tab1

As with all statistics, you need to look beyond the figures to see where and when the sample was taken from etc to get a clearer understanding before drawing conclusions.
For example, the infection rates from oral sex are very small, and those figures only cover male/female oral sex. This may suggest that infection from girl/girl is negligable, but there are cases where women have contracted HIV having only had girl/girl sex and no other risk factors.
Simple conclusion, however small the risk, if it was your life potentially at risk, would you chance it?

(11-04-2012 20:05 )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.