Talent testing has announced that starting today until July 7, 2013 they will begin testing for Hep B and Hep C as part of the standard STD screen. Both AVN and XBiz dutifully reported this but nobody asked the real questions here.
What if a performer tests positive for Hep? Will they be listed as unavailable for work in APHSS?
Also whats interesting to see will be who DOESN’T test. I know for a FACT that there are performers who have HEP C and are working regularly. Speaking of those performers did they read about what happened to Mister Marcus? Was that a shot across the bow to them? If they know they have HEP and work anyway they could be facing criminal prosecution. is that why Nacho Vidal is suddenly pro condom?
I commend Sixto Pacheco for this move, don’t get me wrong this IS a can of worms and it is high time it was opened and CET had better follow suit.
Assuming they do there’s gonna be some A list talent out of work very soon.
28 Responses
Hep Testing in Porn The REAL Ramifications. http://t.co/DvF0Q2cuWs
Why are they waiting until July 7 ???
Nsidious Evans liked this on Facebook.
Lotsa peeps will be out of work then. ! Lol. Weed out the trash I suppose
OK Mike , The legal and the medical issues of this are very far reaching so I’m going to throw my 2 cents in here given my background in medicine and the adult entertainment industry. Stripping but close enough. A positive test result could be taken as a federal case as there a people who work in healthcare that have Hep the government only requires disclosure for HIV and the modes of transmission are very different. Both however are blood born pathogens. Second if prophylactic methods are enforced in the industry why is this even an issue or are they still bouncing on that one too? Forgive me for not being current. Third if you have a major disease why the hell would you want to risk the lives of others?
I have no problem getting tested for Hep B and C. They’re scary and I’d rather not get them. http://t.co/MhwFvwRkem
RT @pamperedpenny: I have no problem getting tested for Hep B and C. They’re scary and I’d rather not get them. http://t.co/MhwFvwRkem
Expect the c-law to pass
Walter Spohn liked this on Facebook.
This is not part of the new monthly screening. It is a one month long probram offering the Hep testing for free.
The HEP rates are so low in the US I truly have no idea why anyone woudl think this is such a huge threat: http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/PDFs/US-surv_table.pdf This may only go to 2003, but the growth potential appears to be pretty small even now.
Hep C has been very much on the rise since then and it now kills more people per year here in the US than do HIV related causes. Hep C isnt spread easily via regular sex (just like HIV) but it is spread easily by anal sex. I would bet you more performers have Hep C than have contracted HIV.
Between 2006 and 2010 statistics by CDC on general US population (absolute latest dates I have found full studies on): Acute Hep A Declined 53% Acute Hep B declined 29%, Cases of Acute Hep C increased by 6%. So even with the increase (which all percentage statistics also have to take into consideration how many more PEOPLE are in an area between study years) there is still more chance of a porn performer experiencing Anaphylactic shock from exposure to latex, than contracting any of the HEP viruses on set. I commend you for looking out for performer safety, but making it sound like there’s some impending HEP outbreak in US porn is a bit premature: http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/Statistics/2010Surveillance/PDFs/2010HepSurveillanceRpt.pdf
Actually I base that on the fact that I know of several current popular performers who have hep c. most are male, all perform in bareback anal scenes (with girls) so the odds are that its gonna be a problem. Actually Its already a problem I expect, we have just been ignoring it. Interesting move by Sixto if you look at it politically that was masterful.
Right now, I’m really wondering how Mike knows which performers have Hep C???? I would assume nobody would willingly reveal this info . So does somebody have access to their personal medical records????
I have no access to medical records but yes some people do tell….This is actually no big secret in porn but obviously I cant name names they have to do that themselves.
Sherry,
to compare porn perfromers/escorts to average everyday people in any cdc study is just ridiculous. Porn performers/escorts are a very small and unique subset of the population, and their risk factors for contracting any type of std is just far beyond the general population.
have you ever heard of a single performer have any medical problems with latex, even in the gay industry, where they use condoms. There are tens, if not hundreds thousands of doctors and nurses, not to mention many other occupations where the use of latex gloves is required. I have never seen one single article in over ten years in the adult industry press, bay or straight about an allergic reaction to a condom.
Sherry, I could cite study after study that shows a relatively low rate of infection or hiv, but if we just did a study in Washington DC the rates are astronomical.
But we all know that the any Hep C positive perfomrer will just go to CET this month., or maybe take a short vacation.
MIKE, its the AGENTS who have to worry. Knowingly booking infected talent to work with others and not notifying them. Just like the Stagliano thing, and Marcus.
The chickens are finally coming home to roost. Time for APHSS to make their protocols known. TTS says they will not list someone as available for work if they test postive. The question is, who’se policy is that, TTS or APHSS? THATS THE REAL QUESTION!
I have to agree completely Mike and from the perspective of the CDC ie. that of Epidemiology , Did said studies specifically cover the industry or simply heroin users where the diseases is much more prevalent. Every case is one too many and if your going to complain about some or any for Universal precautions that THE American medical Association is based on in theory and practice, you need to revisit the statistics of every study that has been done since the first US pandemic.
The data I linked to is based on all reported HEP infections treated in hospitals, regardless of how or where it was contracted. And since there is not standard industry testing for Hep, B or C in the industry, how are the reports of who has what verified? I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m just saying there’s a lot of questions here that won’t be answered until verified, recent, tests of all talent are done.
Sorry, Hep A B or C standrad industry testing
jilted says “I have never seen one single article in over ten years in the adult industry press, bay or straight about an allergic reaction to a condom” Kylie Ireland has written about having an allergy to things made of latex. Kylie wrote about her allergic reaction to sex toys on the set of The Violation of Kylie Ireland. When Jessica Darlin was an actress in x-rated movies, she mentioned allergy to latex condoms during an interviews. Who knows how many people, that have the allergies, don’t mention it because the subject does not come up in an interview. There are condoms not made of latex, so there are substitutes. I have read that it can take time for a latex allergy to develop so it can can be underestimated when it comes to how many people that have it.
The Violation of Me
http://kylieirelandblog.com/2011/03/17/the-violation-of-me/
You might as well have a industry-wide moratorium until you determine the infection rates of Hep B and C, particularly Hep C.
From my current experience in working on Hep C clinical trials. This is a disease you DO NOT want to take lightly. The effectiveness of current therapies: interferon, ribavirin, telaprevir and boceprevir is limited to certain HCV genotypes. Even upcoming oral therapies in PHIII trials are limited to specific genotypes.
would this be the same Kylie Ireland who claimed to have an encounter with michael Jordan?
Allow me to quote her
“He wasn’t really kinky or nasty or anything like that. But the question I get asked is did he go down on you. Yes he did. We did several different positions. Before we started going we were rolling around and kissing and fondling. He was, oh, I don’t have a condom. He picks up the phone- whoever- a teammate or I don’t know, towel boy, condom boy, I don’t know what they have. Hey, he goes can you get me some condoms. Next thing you know they’re slipped under the door. They were actually too small. He had to pick up the phone and call again. Once the condom issue was solved we went our merry little way. That was it. It was a fun night. I don’t regret doing it. ”
She didn’t have an allergy then…maybe she developed it…but funny I seem to recall when Kylie was a condom only performer. IIRC when she did a comeback scene with Tommy Byron she made him get a full battery of tests…
I guess thats ok for Kylie but not OK for anyone else….
Whatever the rate of STD transmission or other infections was in porn in the past, you have to wonder if it isn’t likely to be on the rise with the increase in the number of anal, DP, squirting and extreme scenes. There were anal and DP scenes in the Golden Age, but they weren’t as frequent and they didn’t include A2M. Other than AJA back in the 80’s, the whole squirting thing is relatively new – or at least its prevalence. You have to think that the increased exposure to bacteria and bodily fluids beyond semen and vaginal excretions puts people more at risk and the extreme nature of many of the acts increases the risk of tears and abrasions that put people at risk.
To answer one of your questions, per the CDC website the risk of the transmission of increases with thoses who have multiple sex partners, have a sexually transmitted disease, engage in rough sex, or are infected with HIV.
It could have taken a long time for Kylie Ireland to have developed her latex alergy. My Mother developed an alergy to cough candies. She was frequently eating them for months and then started having headaches. My Mother quit the cough candies completely when she realized what was happening.
I believe that for condom scenes, non-latex condoms should be used instead because it is uncertain when someone could develop an alergy to latex. I use latex condoms myself and I now worry that I could
develop an alergy. I’m thinking about getting non-latex condoms. The jilted person talks as if latex alergies are extremely rare. I’ve read otherwise: “According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, between 5 percent and 15 percent of workers who use latex gloves will develop latex allergies.”
http://blink.ucsd.edu/safety/occupational/PPE/gloves/latex.html
There is a difference between a performer choosing to be condom only and the government forcing people to use condoms in porn scenes. Kimberly Kane has criticized condoms being mandated by the governmant but she personally prefers to have condoms used in her sex scenes. During January of 2011, Danny Wylde put up an interview with Kimberly Kane on his website. Kane said she “was condom-only for two years.” Kane talked about doing non-condom scenes again. In reference to condoms being used on porn sets: “Not a lot of people give you the option. It’s not really an option because the product isn’t a condom product. That’s the gig. That’s what you signed up for.”
http://trvewestcoastfiction.blogspot.com/2011/01/interview-with-kimberly-kane.html
With all those crossovers working….use a condom!