Fifth porn star tests positive for HIV

A fifth adult movie performer has tested positive for the AIDS virus in an outbreak that has halted most porn production in the multibillion-dollar industry, a nonprofit medical group announced Wednesday. The porn actress had unprotected sex with HIV-positive actor Darren James, officials with the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation said. The woman's name was not released by the health foundation, but AVN.com, the online counterpart of Adult Video News, reported that her manager confirmed it was a woman with the stage name Miss Arroyo. Arroyo apparently contracted the virus March 30 while filming a scene with James, according to AVN.com. James contracted the virus in March while shooting a movie in Brazil, health officials said. Two other women who worked with him after his return to the United States also have tested HIV-positive. About 50 people who performed with either James or those he worked with have been on a voluntary quarantine list that effectively prevents them from performing in sex scenes until they have passed two more monthly HIV tests. Dozens of producers have shut down filming pending testing. A transsexual actress named "Jennifer" was diagnosed HIV-positive on Tuesday. That case was unrelated to the others, the health foundation said, because the actress had last worked in February, before the HIV outbreak, and her partners did not work with anyone on the quarantine list. The last HIV scare in the porn industry was in 1999 and involved only a single case. The latest outbreak has prompted an investigation by the state's workplace safety agency and calls for state regulation of the largely self-regulating industry. The California assembly health committee shelved a bill Tuesday that would have required adult movie performers to undergo testing for sexually transmitted diseases every two weeks. The bill must undergo more study before it can be heard, the committee declared. The current HIV outbreak in the porn industry does not affect gay adult films or their stars, industry sources tell Advocate.com. Because condoms are used for all anal sex scenes on the vast majority of gay adult film sets, there's little risk of HIV transmissions, say gay porn directors Chi Chi LaRue and Tony Alizzi. Production of gay porn films has not been affected by the shutdown of straight adult film shoots, they say. (AP, with additional reporting by Advocate.com)