Fourth HIV case found in porn industry

A fourth adult film performer has tested positive for the HIV infection, but the case is apparently unrelated to an outbreak that virtually shut down pornography production last month, an industry health care official said on Tuesday. A transsexual actress who goes by the stage name Jennifer tested positive for HIV on Tuesday and had last performed a sex scene on February 27 with two male actors who have since tested negative, according to Sharon Mitchell of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation. The foundation runs an HIV screening program that tests porn actors every three weeks for sexually transmitted diseases and issues certificates that allow them to work. The actors involved in the latest case will be tested again to rule out any possibility of further HIV transmissions, Mitchell said. "This is an open-and-shut case of genealogy," she said. "We think it's contained." Last month HIV infections of three other porn stars prompted a 60-day shutdown of adult productions that employ 6,000 people, including about 1,200 performers. The suburban San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles is the hub of the U.S. porn industry. Last month's HIV outbreak prompted calls for unprecedented inspections of the multibillion-dollar industry and mandatory condom use--a proposition that critics said would drive the industry underground or out of the state. California assemblyman Tim Leslie, a Republican, has said the HIV outbreak showed that the industry's self-regulation measures are failing. Leslie has drafted a bill to require testing of actors for sexually transmitted diseases two weeks before every film shoot and barring infected actors from performing. An assembly committee set aside Leslie's bill for further study on Tuesday, a move that effectively kills the proposed legislation. Democratic Assemblywoman Rebecca Cohn, the chair of the committee, said the bill was hastily drafted. (Reuters)