YNOT – A porn actor who tested positive for HIV in October has revealed his identity and taken to the media to level accusations that he acquired the disease on an adult film set — and the industry and its official health-testing organization subsequently did little to help him.
Derrick Burts, 24, has been known as “Patient Zeta” since early October, when Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation in Sherman Oaks, Calif., quarantined a male performer who tested positive for the sexually transmitted disease. AIM also quarantined about a dozen scene partners with whom Burts had worked since Sept. 3, pending multiple tests to determine their status. All except Patient Zeta received clean bills of health, and AIM released them to resume their careers Nov. 4.
Burts worked in both straight and gay productions as Cameron Reid and Derrick Chambers. On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times published an interview in which he outed himself and called for mandatory condom usage in all explicit productions. He also blamed the adult industry for not educating performers about the health hazards they might face and for encouraging performers to work without condoms.
“Looking back, he said he wishes he had known more about the risks of contracting sexually transmitted diseases in the industry,” according to the Times report.
“Making $10,000 or $15,000 for porn isn’t worth your life,” Burts told the Times. “Performers need to be educated.”
In addition, Burts accused AIM of lying to the public and the industry about the source of his HIV infection. He told the Times AIM indicated to him that he had acquired the disease from working with a “known positive” individual in the industry, although AIM declined to reveal to him the other performer’s identity because of patient confidentiality laws. However, AIM has maintained since early November that “Patient Zeta acquired the virus through private, personal activity” and not on an adult movie set.
“That’s completely false,” Burts told the Times. “There is no possible way. The only person I had sex with in my personal life was my girlfriend.”
Burts’ girlfriend also is an adult performer. So far, she has tested negative, he said, adding that he believes he contracted the disease during a gay shoot in Florida. The gay performers on the shoot were required to wear condoms during anal intercourse, but not during oral sex, he revealed.
He also said he has been under treatment at AIDS Healthcare Foundation in Los Angeles, and agrees with the mainstream advocacy organization that California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health should strengthen regulations that apply to the adult entertainment industry. AHF has been an outspoken — even contentious — proponent of mandatory condom usage during Cal/OSHA’s hearings about the matter this year.
“AIM likes to state that testing is enough. That’s completely false,” Burts told the Times, adding that during his career in adult he also tested positive for chlamydia, gonorrhea and herpes. “[Working in adult is] very dangerous. It should be required that you wear a condom on the set.”
AHF President Michael Weinstein also issued a statement accusing the adult industry and AIM of negligence and attempting to stick taxpayers with the healthcare bills industry workers incur.
“We are extremely glad to know that Derrick has been linked to care and is receiving appropriate medical care for his HIV infection through AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a government-funded non-profit health care provider,” Weinstein said. “However, we are astounded that the multibillion-dollar adult film industry and its fig leaf of a clinic could not even get it together six weeks after his first positive HIV test to link him to appropriate follow-up medical care and treatment, and that taxpayers — rather than the adult film industry — will be left holding the bill.”
