The hopes of many in the adult video industryóthat with the discovery of Marc Wallice"s HIV+ status, no new HIV cases would soon appearówere shattered when vacationing actress Kimberly Jade tested positive for the disease in late May.\n "She did not work with Marc Wallice, by the way. I think that"s what everyone needs to know here," said Miss Sharon Mitchell, testing coordinator for Protecting Adult Welfare. "She was coming back into the industry. She had not had a PCR-DNA. Her last Eliza test was January 29, and it was still negative, and her Western Blot was positive on eight bands."\n According to informed sources, the large number of reactive bands on Jade"s Western Blot test would suggest that Jade has had the disease for about six months.\n "The beauty about this whole thing is, we have figured out a testing sequence that works," Mitchell rejoiced. "We know how to protect our people."\n Mitchell was referring to the current industry standard, which requires a PCR-DNA test every 27 days, and the fact that almost every performer will now ask to see his or her partner"s DNA test before a sex scene begins.\n "As we all now know, Eliza tests are fucking worthless," Mitchell added. "Anything that you can get back in 10 minutes that"s supposed to tell you whether you have HIV antibodies, you don"t want to pay attention to; trust me."\n The fallibility of Eliza tests was driven home more deeply when Mitchell obtained such a test, dated March 30, 1998, from actor Marc Wallice, who tested positive on a PCR-DNA test less than 30 days later.\n "When we got the Marc Wallice results, it was the day of that talent meeting, April 29th, and he was positive by PCR-DNA," Mitchell recounted. "After an explosion of rumors on the Internet that Marc Wallice had knowledge that he had HIV for several years, and that he had been on everyone"s list, I looked back, and I found that indeed I had made an exception in Marc"s case, which was an error on my part, which is something I"ll never do again, obviously.\n "I distinctly remember telling Marc several times to get tested for the Trish [Devereaux] thing. Her list actually went from 65 people down to none. I had pretty much everyone else"s test except for two people that slipped through at that time, one of which I doggedly pursued and found. She and Marc were the two that slipped through. Marc told me, åYeah, I"m getting tested," and every time I would see him at Jim [South]"s, I"d say, åBy the way, you haven"t come in [to be tested]. Are you going elsewhere?" And he"d say, åYeah, I go to another clinic for my tests." I took that as an answer, and I took it as gospel, and the better part of the staff in the office here did too. He"s been around so long, he"s been a friend of mine for so many years, I thought, åwell, the guy is working for himself; that"s fine.""\n But finally, the evidence pointing to Wallice as the likely source of infection became so great that Mitchell redoubled her efforts to have Wallice take a PCR-DNA test. She even had Elegant Angel"s Patrick Collins, who distributes Wallice"s video series Tails of Perversity, call Wallice from Hungary and insist that Wallice submit to follow-up blood tests after his HIV+ status had been established.\n While Mitchell refuses to draw conclusions about the possibility of Wallice being "Patient Zero," Wallice"s May 6 Western Blot test revealed six positive bands and a viral load in excess of 100,000, the upper limit of the test"s capability. By comparison, Mitchell noted that one case that was "caught early"ãthe victim was tested within one month after being infectedãhad only two positive bands and a viral load of 5970, while Tricia Devereaux"s load was measured at about 8000.\n Mitchell also noted that Wallice"s Eliza testsóhe had never had a PCR-DNA test prior to April 29óall come from a clinic which she refused to name "on San Fernando Road in Burbank, California," which Wallice told her had been recommended to him by the late Cal Jammer. Mitchell"s best information is that no other current performer obtains tests from that clinic. An inspection of the test carrying Wallice"s name, dated March 30, 1998, lists his age as 49.\n "If he"s 49, I"m 65," Mitchell snorted.\n When contacted by AVN, Wallice refused to discuss his HIV status or anything relating to it.\n Unfortunately, even with a sample of Wallice"s blood, it is impossible to determine scientifically if Wallice is indeed the person who transmitted the HIV virus to anyone else in the industry.\n "There are only three strains of the virus known in the world," said Mitchell. "We"d be spending $5000 of the industry"s money to find out that everybody probably caught it in the United States.\n "Everybody wants a definitive answer," she continued, "but the only thing I can tell you is that Marc was on everybody"s [genealogy] from Barbara Doll, to Nena Cherry, Trish Devereaux, Brooke Ashley and Caroline."\n But despite gossip in the Internet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.erotica, most rumors of certain actors" HIV+ status are false.\n "Mila is fine," replied Mitchell to questions about specific performers. "We get Mila rumors every month. We get Dave Hardman rumors every month. We get Earl Slate rumors every month. We get the jilted-husband-of-the-month who insists he"s HIV+ and wants to terrorize us. We tell him very nicely to come in and we"ll help him with his genealogy and we"ll help him find after-care, and they never come in."\n However, Americans are not the only ones concerned about the deadly disease.\n "Patrick Collins is irate, because he"s in Hungary, and everyone in Hungary thinks the Americans are all infecting their women, and Patrick is getting the brunt of a lot of stuff that"s going on," Mitchell reported. "He was able to shoot, but with condoms, and the Hungarians are saying, åWhy are the Americans using condoms? They must be hiding something." He was just in the middle of it."\n However, despite rumors spread by some European journalists, Mitchell doesn"t know of anyone spreading HIV from America to Hungary. She said, though, that many Europeans are now using condoms when shooting.\n "HIV is one of the fastest-growing diseases in the world," Mitchell concluded. "It"s at epidemic proportions in the United States at this time, and the fastest-growing group of people that are getting it are women between the ages of 18 and 38. You can try to witch-hunt, but the fact of the matter is that HIV is here to stay, and it"s something that we are prepared to deal with. What you as talent can do is, wherever you take your test, bring it in here every damn month so we can have it on file, so that in the event of something, we can notify you or notify the people that you work with."
All models were at least 18 years old at the time of their performance. 18 U.S.C. 2257 Record-Keeping Requirements Compliance Statement.
