After porn star Cameron Bay tested positive for HIV last month, the pornographic film industry announced a moratorium on the filming of adult movies, reports WTSP Channel 10 News.  All partners of the initially affected actor were tested in order to determine if they had also been infected.  The Executive Director of the Free Speech Coalition, the industry trade group, stated that they do not believe the actor was infected on set.  However, the moratorium was set to only be lifted when they were able to eliminate the risk of transmission.

With the high-risk nature of working in the entertainment industry, this is not an isolated incident.  In 2010 and 2011, there were similar incidences that raised red flags and shut down production.  CBS News reports on the 2011 scare in which an adult film actor tested positive for HIV in an out-of-state clinic.  The industry halted production in the San Fernando Valley in Southern California, the center of the American porn industry.  After a retest, it was determined the original results were a false positive.  Filming then resumed.

In 2010, Derrick Burts, previously known only as Patient Zeta to protect his identity, came forward to speak out against the practices of the porn industry, according to the Los Angeles Times.  Burts tested negative for HIV in September 2010 and performed as a crossover actor in both heterosexual and homosexual productions.  By October of the same year, he was HIV-positive.

Since his diagnosis, Burts has turned to advocating for safer practices in the porn industry.  While the straight porn industry requires negatives HIV tests before filming, the gay porn industry does not have similar requirements for testing for HIV.  Moreover, performers that test HIV positive are allowed to keep working as long as they use a condom because they are performers.  HIV-positive individuals then continue to present a risk to their fellow performers because condoms are not 100 percent effective.

CBS News reports that three of the porn actors who recently learned that they have become HIV-positive are now pushing for the adult entertainment industry to require the use of condoms.

“Asking for condoms is not what you did because you could be replaced,” Bay said during a press conference in Los Angeles. “I didn’t realize how unsafe it was until I saw the pictures.”

“I do know for a fact that condoms will work, have worked, do work,” said Rod Daily, Bay’s boyfriend and an adult film actor.

Bay was the first of her friends to test positive for HIV in this recent scare. Though the HIV scare only resulted in a four-day moratorium, this time has largely been eaten up.  Also evaluating safety is the Free Speech Coalition, an industry-supported group which oversees testing and sexually transmitted disease monitoring in the porn industry and initiated the halt in production.