Porn Shutdown Over After Performer Retests HIV Negative

LOS ANGELES -- An adult film performer who tested positive for HIV and caused the porn industry to shut down production as a precaution has been retested and the actor does not have the virus, a porn industry trade group said Saturday.

Production can now resume, said Free Speech Coalition executive director Diane Duke.

"The industry will be abundantly cautious as we try to nail down the reasons for what now appears to have been a false positive result on a previous test," Duke said.

The actor, who was in Florida, had been slated to work on a shoot for Mofos.com, but production was halted last week when the test came back positive for HIV.

Duke declined to release the performer's name, age or gender, citing the person's right to medical privacy. She also declined to say how her group learned of the case.

Production has been shut down since Monday in the San Fernando Valley's multi-billion dollar adult entertainment industry, which includes Hustler and Evil Angel's productions. The case was found at an out-of-state clinic that does not report to California health officials, Duke said.

The porn industry was similarly shuttered in late 2010, after porn actor Derrick Burts was diagnosed as HIV-positive. His case was confirmed, and he has since left the industry to become an advocate for the use of condoms in pornography.

The Free Speech Coalition is working on a database to track sexually transmitted disease testing among porn actors, a task formerly handled by the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation before it closed in December 2010.

Known as AIM, the San Fernando Valley clinic had catered to porn stars since it opened in 1998. It was forced to close because of inadequate licensing.