Elegant Angel has announced that effective immediately, all performers working on one of their productions will be required to have a HIV test that is less than two weeks old.
“We can’t get rid of the disease, but we can control what happens on our sets, and we feel that this is the safest thing to do,” Patrick Collins, owner of Elegant Angel, told AVN.com.
AIM Healthcare Foundation’s executive director Dr. Sharon Mitchell, PhD, applauded the efforts of Elegant Angel to provide a safer working environment. Mitchell did not go as far as calling for everyone to call for mandatory testing every two weeks.
“The two week interval shortens the window period for exposure. The test picks up at 50 percent at two weeks compared to 30 days, but picking up HIV two weeks earlier than two weeks later is a good thing,” Mitchell said. “HIV is still out there and will always be a threat. They are simply trying to create a safer work environment. It shows that the community really cares.”
By testing every two weeks, if a performer tests HIV-positive, the period of likely transmission would be considered to be two weeks since his last negative.
A HIV PCR-DNA test measures the amount of the virus in a person. People who were infected the day after a test still may not test positive by the PCR-DNA test alone until 30 days later, or even 60 days, but since the amount of the HIV virus in their body was so low that they were able to test negative, it is considered highly unlikely that they could have infected another person.
Without the use of condoms, cutting down the window of possible transmission may be as safe as sex gets for adult performers.
The Red Light District and Platinum X have also established a two-week period for testing for those who wish to work for their companies. Mitchell reports that Evil Angel has done so as well.
