The porn star AIDS scare
A new HIV case, and 16 newly disclosed cases from the past four years, rock Southern California’s adult-film industry.
Dr. Sharon Mitchell of Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation tests a porn star for H.I.V.
(Corbis/Ted Soqui)
What happened
After a female porn star tested positive for the AIDS virus at a California adult-film clinic last week, Los Angeles public health officials disclosed 16 previously unpublicized HIV cases among porn actors. That brings to 22 the number of known HIV cases since a small outbreak shut down Southern California’s porn industry for a month in 2004. (Los Angeles Times, )
What the commentators said
“Rumor is rampant when the words 'HIV' and 'porn' are in the same sentence,” said Dr. Sharon Mitchell of the Adult Industry Medical (AIM) clinic, which tests porn actors. And these stories draw the media “like moths to a flame.” But while we’re awaiting final confirmation on the new possible infection, there’s no sign that “patient Zero” spread the disease to any “industry partner” or her boyfriend.
But there are reports that “patient Zero” was allowed to work the day after her first positive test, said Kim LaCapria in The Inquisitr, so you can understand the “porn-industry panic.” Let’s hope things are better than in 2004, when only two of the San Fernando Valley’s 200 porn production companies required performers to use condoms.
Don’t bet on it, said Zach Behrens in LAist. California has laws prohibiting the exchange of bodily fluids at a workplace, but some health and porn experts fear that if those laws are “harshly enforced,” the porn industry will go underground, shun the AIM clinic, and become “more of a breeding ground for disease.”
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11 Comments
Posted by Frank Reynolds, Saturday, June 13, 2009, 2:14 am Sharon Mitchell is not a Doctor. She is a former Adult Pornstar and is the Director of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, which she set up in 1998.
Posted by Flap, Saturday, June 13, 2009, 4:00 am She has a PHD which makes her a doctor. However she is not an MD.
Posted by M.K.Crews, Saturday, June 13, 2009, 4:04 am After the end of her adult career, Mitchell obtained a Ph.D. degree in human sexuality from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality quote from WIkipedia. Not an MD, but indeed carries the title of Doctor due to the Ph.D. after her name.
Posted by Barry, Saturday, June 13, 2009, 6:06 pm Sharon Mitchell obtained a Ph.D. degree in human sexuality from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco.
Posted by Jimmy, Saturday, June 13, 2009, 6:51 pm she's a broke down old hooker.
Posted by stdslove, Sunday, June 14, 2009, 6:36 am HIV case is on the rise!! I just found the largest HIV dating and support site Positivefish. com It has about 500,000 members!!!! Even a celebrity is on this site!! OMG!
Posted by Aaron, Monday, June 15, 2009, 12:19 pm And the idiots all wonder why Muslim extemists want to eradicate the west....As long as we keep exporting this garbage and in their eyes endagering them, they will keep up the killing.
Posted by Joe Coool, Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 2:01 am Doe's anyone know the peoples names that have been infected.
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