The porn industry in San Fernando Valley in California announced a moratorium on Wednesday after a female performer tested positive for HIV, reports the Daily Mail.
Officials did not say when the positive test was recorded, but the actor’s sex partners are in the process of being tested by doctors with Adult Production Health and Safety Services. It is not believed that the individual became infected on set.
“The moratorium will be lifted once the risk of transmission has been eliminated,” said Diane Duke, executive director of the industry trade group the Free Speech Coalition.
A similar moratorium was issued by the industry last year when about a dozen performers were infected with syphilis. Duke added that there have been only two cases of performers testing positive for HIV nationwide since 2004. The current case makes three.
The porn industry has recently come under fire for not requiring actors to wear condoms.
“Exposing workers to this type of harm would not be accepted in any other industry in this nation,” said AIDS activist, Michael Weinstein.
The industry, however, says that people do not want to see condoms and testing is done regularly to prevent disease transmission.