Likely HIV Infection on Gay Porn Set in Nevada Leads to Alert from Calif. Dept of Public Health

California public health officials issued an alert Monday that cited “very strong evidence” that a gay porn performer may have become infected with HIV on an adult set in Nevada.

SEE UPDATES BELOW

The Department of Public Health alert states a male performer tested positive for HIV after engaging in unprotected sex with several other male performers during two separate film shoots.

In what would seem to be a glaring omission, the alert does not state when this purported on-set infection occurred.

According to the DPH, a model had tested negative before the shoot, performed in two shots over a “two-week period”, then later tested positive for HIV. However it is not clear how long before the first shoot that he tested negative, or whether he was tested using adult industry protocols.

The advanced testing used uniformly by adult performers on the “straight” side of the business, and overseen by Performer Availability Screening Services (PASS), is not usually used in “gay porn” filming.

“The actor and production company thought he was HIV-negative during filming,” the alert states. “Shortly after his negative test, HIV levels in his body rose rapidly to where he could infect other actors through unprotected sex.

One actor from the second shoot has since tested newly positive for HIV, according to the alert.

“During the second film shoot, he had symptoms of a viral infection,” the alert states. “The actor went to a clinic and had another blood test that showed he had recently become infected with HIV.”

The health department claims that lab results indicate the first performer who tested positive “probably transmitted” HIV to the second.

Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but the alert hits all of the talking points of anti-porn crusader Michael Weinstein of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and Monday’s press release from AHF states details that are not included in the alert (such as the assertion that “the individual initially tested HIV-negative in California”).

The giveaway may lie in this sentence from AHF’s press release:

“California’s Department of Public Health and OSHA Occupational Health officials … vetted the performers’ blood samples with the CDC and concluded after genetic sequencing that this HIV infection occurred on set.”

Yes, Cal/OSHA was involved.

More details and remarks from Free Speech Coalition/PASS as they come in…

UPDATE 1: TRPWL has confirmed that the cases cited in this “alert” date from the October 2014 production hold, thus there is no need to panic.

UPDATE 2: Free Speech Coalition confirms that the Nevada “shoots in question did not adhere to the PASS testing protocols and were shot outside of the PASS testing database used by adult performers. Not only did this leave those who participated at risk, it made it much harder to track scene partners once the possible infection was discovered.

“While the set did use a degree of HIV testing, it fell below the standard set by PASS protocols, including the use of ELISA HIV tests, rather than the highly sensitive RNA tests required by the industry.”