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We all know what HIV/AIDS can do to an individual. What greater damage then, can it cause to a person who has sex as a career? Well, the threat of HIV/AIDS in the adult entertainment industry is beyond imagination. Apart from the threat of contracting HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections like gonorrhea, Chlamydia, syphilis among others is also very high. The reason behind this is that porn involves a lot of unstimulated raw sex without protection which leaves the actors vulnerable. It has spelled the end of the careers of many porn actors. Do visit our Pornstar Database to find out more about your favorite pornstars.
Curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS
In an attempt to reduce the threat, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation drafted the condom mandate law which seeks to compel porn actors to wear condoms since ‘no amount of testing can make adult films safe without a condom .’ However, this move has been met by stiff resistance from major players in the porn industry. They claimed that viewers don’t like seeing porn actors with condoms on as it ruins their fantasy (which is a valid claim by the way). Many porn industries and governments are yet to come up with policies that are mutually acceptable and ensures the safety of the actors without interfering with their sales.
Insufficient testing
The industry tests porn actors for HIV/AIDS every fourteen days. But that, according to some actors, is hardly sufficient. Some of these stars have been infected with the deadly disease while working on set, having tested negative a few weeks earlier. Testing should be done more frequently, at least once per week, while also encouraging the use of condoms. It remains to be seen whether industry players are willing to go down that route. Let me take you through some of the actors who have contracted HIV/AIDS while working in the industry throughout the years.
Actors who have tested positive for HIV/AIDS
1.Rod Daily
In 2013, Rod Daily announced via his Twitter handle that he had tested positive for the virus. His tweet read ” ‘Drumroll, please!! I’m 32 years old, and I’m HIV positive. Acute HIV, which means I recently was infected. For that, I am blessed.” According to him, he had tested negative just a few weeks earlier meaning that he caught the virus while performing. In subsequent tweets, the male pornstar questioned the selfishness of the industry which is against the use of condoms on account that it will negatively affect sales. It is like allowing race car drivers to enter a race without a helmet.
2.Darren James
This American porn star is another on the list of those infected with the virus ‘in the line of duty.’ It is alleged that Darren James contracted the disease during filming in an unspecified location in Brazil in 2004. Initial tests had proved negative, but it was believed he had been tested too soon. His worries were confirmed in subsequent tests which showed that he was indeed positive. The scary thing about the second test was that it was conducted after James had already resumed filming in the United States which means he had already infected several other actors. The actor was (rightly) devastated by the news saying that it was ‘like a huge kick in the gut.’
3.Lara Roxx
Having worked with Darren James, Lara Roxx also tested HIV positive in 2004. Perhaps heartbreaking, she had only been in the industry for six months. The former Canadian actor is said to have been forced by her agent to go on set with Darren James, with whom they had unprotected sex. In the same day, she filmed with four other men because she did not want to ‘disappoint her agent’ but it is believed that it is James who infected her. Understandably, she was also devastated by the news. She is now running a foundation to support HIV-positive patients.
4.Cameron Bay
You know things are out of place when one actor causes a temporary shutdown of porn production because they have tested HIV positive. Well, that’s what happened when one Cameron Bay tested positive in 2013. Major companies put a halt on filming and production for 60 days so actors could have proper health checkups. Like other stars before her, this conclusive information was hard to take for the actor while Mark Schechter, owner of Adult Talent Managers LA, which represents Bay, lauded her courage in the wake of those career-threatening revelations. She has since left the porn industry.
5.Miss Arroyo
Another one of those actors infected by Darren James. In a revelation that brought the LA-based porn industry to a near halt, it was established that Miss Arroyo (her stage name) had unprotected sex with James. She is one of 50 people who at that time had either had sex with James or had sex with people James had sex with. Others were quarantined for a period until they were given the go-ahead, but Miss Arroyo was not lucky as she tested positive.
6.Jessica Dee
Unlike Lara Roxx who had only been in the industry for a minute before contracting HIV, Jessica Dee can boast over a number of considerable videos and photos experiences. The performer from the Czech Republic also worked with Darren James on the same day he is believed to have infected Lara Roxx. It was not immediately clear who was the other porn star who had tested positive, but it later emerged that it was indeed Jessica Dee. Her agent had said at the time that Dee was in ‘hysterics.’ She had worked in the industry for five years before contracting the virus.
PornDude’s final words
The issue of HIV/AIDS has been a thorn in the flesh for the porn industry since the 1980s. The matter is worsened by the fact that actors perform with several co-stars per day and it is not easy to curb the spread of the virus unless proper testing measures are put in place. The above actors are just a representation of a bigger problem in the industry that needs to be addressed. Otherwise, few actors will be willing to delve into this venture knowing well what befell their predecessors. I the PornDude certainly hope that something will be done before then.
