Porn Star Tests Positive for HIV, Shuts Down Production at 2 Companies

Adult film actress Piper Auston (real name Holly Hays) pays for her monthly tests at the AIM Health Care Foundation clinic on Aug. 19, 2004, in Sherman Oaks, Calif. (Robyn Beck/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) A Los Angeles adult film star has tested positive for HIV, putting a halt on film production at two of the industry's biggest adult entertainment companies.

The actor, whose identity and gender have not been released, was a patient of the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, known as AIM, a Sherman Oaks clinic that caters to pornographic actors.

Clinic spokeswoman Jennifer Miller told the Los Angeles Times that a quarantine was in place for performers who had sexual contact with the person.

Wicked Pictures and Vivid Entertainment told the Times that they shut down production as a precaution when the positive test was revealed.

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

By law, porn actors are required to test negative for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases within 30 days of going to work on a film.

This requirement has been highly criticized by former porn star, Darren James, who in 2004 was at the center of an HIV outbreak after first testing negative days before performing but later learning he had tested positive, affecting several actors.

Now an advocate for the mandatory use of condoms on porn sets, James believes the actors are "not getting the protection that they need."

"You think you're safe, but you're not. In between scenes, you don't know what other actors are doing," James said in March at a hearing of California occupational safety officials in Orange County, according to the Times. "I'm living your nightmare every day."

[UForgotPoland]

Surprised Washington DC didn't shutdown too.

[animaltoo]

A headline said porn industry thrown into crisis by aids virus. As if that pack of mess wasn't the definition of people in crisis whether they are smart enough to know it or not.