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Positive HIV tests shut down porn sets
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-04-17 08:42 The notorious multibillion- dollar porn-film
industry in southern California, United States, grounded to a halt Friday after
two porn performers tested positive for the AIDS virus.
The production halt, which affects most of the adult-film companies in the
region, will remain in effect for at least 60 days while testing continues,
according to the Adult Industry Medical Heath Care Foundation (AIMHCF).
The AIMHCF called for the moratorium after reporting that two actors had
tested positive for the HIV virus. It identified one as Darren James and the
other as Lara Roxx.
James and Roxx - both stage names - worked together in at least one movie and
tested positive this week. They are the first porn performers tested HIV
positive since 1999.
The AIMHCF also identified 45 actors and actresses who subsequently either
worked with James or the women he had sex with after contracting the virus,
which is believed to have occurred in Brazil around March 10.
Much of southern California's porn industry, which regularly employs 1,200
actors and actresses, is based in the San Fernando Valley, earning 9 to 10
billion US dollars a year, according to Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los
Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
"It's the underground economy. We know it's steady and we know it's growing
and people may sort of turn their nose up. But ... there is a demand for it and
remember that middle America is kinkier than anybody imagines," Kyser told the
Daily News newspaper.
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