19 Porn Actors Cleared For Work

Nineteen porn actors have been cleared to go back to work.

They were among some 50 performers who had been put on a voluntary quarantine list after an HIV outbreak shook the multi billion-dollar industry, which is mostly based in California's San Fernando Valley.

The head of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation says the organization is confident the 19 performers are HIV-free. The group tests adult film actors for sexually transmitted diseases.

Several adult performers have tested positive for the virus since an actor apparently acquired it in March while shooting in Brazil. The quarantined actors have refrained from doing sex scenes.

A fifth adult movie performer tested positive for the AIDS virus last week in an outbreak that halted most porn production in the multibillion-dollar industry.

The porn actress had unprotected sex with HIV-positive actor Darren James, officials with the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation said.

A transsexual actor named "Jennifer" was diagnosed HIV-positive on Tuesday. That case was unrelated to the others, the health foundation said, because the actor had last worked in February before the HIV outbreak and her partners did not work with anyone on the quarantine list.

The last HIV scare in the porn industry was in 1999 and involved only a single case.

The latest outbreak has prompted an investigation by the state's workplace safety agency and calls for state regulation of the largely self-regulating industry.