HIV POSITIVE PORN STAR CALLS FOR CONDOM USE

An adult film performer, who has appeared in gay and straight porn and contracted HIV, has called for the mandatory use of condoms in the industry.

Derrick Burts, 24, appeared in straight films as “Cameron Reid” and gay films as “Derek Chambers”.

In October, he was contacted by staff at the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation in California, which tests and monitors the HIV status of adult film actors.

When he met with clinic staff he was told that he had tested positive, which caused widespread panic in the porn film industry in the US.

The clinic, which identified him only as “Patient Zeta”, claimed that he contracted the virus “through private, personal activity”.

Burts, however denied this to the Los Angeles Times, insisting that he picked up the virus during his work on set. “That’s completely false. There is no possible way. The only person I had sex with in my personal life was my girlfriend.”

Burts’ girlfriend is also an adult film performer but is HIV negative.

He said that he believed that he became infected at a gay film shoot in Florida in which the performers used condoms for intercourse but not during oral sex.

Burts also revealed that he previously contracted chlamydia, gonorrhoea and herpes and described working in the adult film industry as “very dangerous”, adding: “It should be required that you wear a condom on the set.”

“Making $10,000 or $15,000 for porn isn’t worth your life,” he said, “Performers need to be educated.”

Earlier this week, California’s Treasure Island Media, which specialises in producing gay ‘bareback’ films, was fined $21,470 for shooting scenes with actors who did not wear condoms.