YNOT – Adult Production Health & Safety Services, the adult industry’s primary resource for health testing and certification, has revised its standards for HIV testing. The new standards will provide more accurate results sooner than was possible previously, according to a spokesperson for the organization.

“For years our industry utilized [protease chain reaction]-DNA [testing] as the off-label standard HIV test for performers,” said Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, which administers APHSS. “Although not sanctioned by the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] for diagnosis, the medical professionals at [previous primary industry testing resource AIM Medical Associates PC] chose this test because it was the best test to determine the presence of HIV — especially for acute infections.”

However, Duke continued, after considerable research and contact with infectious disease specialists, pathologists and physicians, APHSS identified two newer tests that better meet the needs of the adult industry’s performer population: the Aptima HIV-1 RNA Qualitative Assay and the Abbot RealTime HIV 1 Assay. Both are approved by the FDA: the former for diagnosis and detection of early HIV infection, and the latter for determining viral load, an indicator of an infection’s severity.

“After speaking with a number of medical professionals, it was clear to us that both tests will be a significant improvement over the PCR-DNA [test],” Duke said. “Some of the experts prefer the Abbot test, and some prefer the Aptima test. All agreed that both tests are effective for our purposes.”

Both tests reduce the “window period” — the time between the moment of infection and the moment the virus is detectable — to as little as nine to 11 days. In addition, both tests are more sensitive than previous standards, so results are expected to be more accurate.

Beginning May 15, all APHSS testing facilities will utilize either the Abbot or Aptima PCR-RNA tests.

The adult entertainment industry voluntarily maintains a requirement that performers who engage in intimate sexual contact on set be tested every 30 days in order to ensure they are free of sexually transmitted infections.

APHSS provides consistent standards and guidelines for the adult production industry designed to ensure a safe and healthy work environment for performers and other adult film professionals. The program includes vetted nationwide testing facilities offering low-cost, high-quality testing in a timely manner, as well as referrals for treatment of STIs. In addition, APHSS maintains a secure, electronic database of all test results in order to inform producers about performers’ availability for work.

More information is available at the organization’s website, APHSS.org.