Check out today's piece on Shelley Lubben and Jersey Jaxin at www.adultcybermart.com
Los Angeles- A Los Angeles Times article focusing on a study of a multi-state investigation tracing sexual contacts of an adult film performer working in Los Angeles County who received a diagnosis of acute HIV infection and pharyngeal gonorrhea in October 2010 while working in the adult industry suggested the fault for the failure of the investigation—which reported that only five of 16 sexual contacts of the infected performer were able to be contacted, and few of them were willing to speak on the issue—should be attributed largely to noncompliance by the adult film industry.
However, officials at AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) say County officials share equal blame for failure of the drawn out, unfinished public health investigation and its overall lack of enforcement of public health laws in the multi billion dollar adult film industry.
“It is strange that the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health—the government body charged with safeguarding the health and welfare of its citizens—continues to allow the adult film industry such wide latitude to so blatantly flout the law with regard to compliance with public health investigations such as the case of Derrick Burts and the adult film industry,” said Michael Weinstein pictured], President, AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
“For unknown reasons, the County clearly has not used its full authority in this investigation and it seems reluctant to fully honor its commitment and responsibility to the public by conducting a thorough and complete investigation in this case.”
Burts’ infections were first officially reported to Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) in December 2010, which then began an investigation.
As the issue continued to garner intense media interest and the clinic serving the adult film industry worked to conceal the actor’s identity (which was not publicly known at that time) Burts became known as ‘Patient Zeta,’ a 24 year-old performer who had been working in both heterosexual and homosexual films in both California and Florida. The actor initially tested HIV-positive in October 2010 at the Adult Industry Medical (AIM) Healthcare Foundation’s testing clinic, an industry-funded clinic serving 1,500 to 2,000 active adult film performers each year.
