Talent will now be required to test monthly not only for HIV, but for also chlamydia and gonorrhea, with the majority of the industry already on board for the proposal.
When talent goes in for their HIV testing, they will also be asked to give a urine sample for chlamydia and gonorrhea testing. Test results will available for all three tests within a day or two. Yesterday, Paul Cambria told the L.A. Times that the major adult entertainment studios were already backing that program, a fact confirmed by AIM's founder Sharon Mitchell today.
Originally, the county was picking up the tab for the extra testing. However, it took seven days for test results to come back, which Mitchell felt wasn't effective enough to help the adult industry. "By the time one of the girls or guys find out that they are positive they may have had sex with up to forty people," Mitchell told AVN.com.
By privatizing the testing, AIM can now get test results back within one to two days. Talent will pay $15 dollars more, a flat fee of $100 for all three tests. Companies are being asked to increase their donations from $150 to $200 a month.
Test results are already going into companies official records.
Syphilis testing will be required of all new people entering the industry, and will be required on a bi-annual basis after that. Syphilis testing will be free, a service provided by the County. Last year, there were no cases of Syphilis among talent in the adult industry.
The new requirements are a result of an investigation launched by the County Board of Supervisors regarding the dangers of STD's in the adult industry.
"If and when these requirements get in place by the state, and believe me they will, my goal is to make sure that it goes off without a hitch," said Mitchell.
AIM will be getting a letter of endorsement by next week from the Department of Health Services to update and monitor the adult industry.
"What AIM has been doing for the last two months is working with the department of health services and the County Board of Supervisors to write the preferred requirements and to also educate the County Board of Supervisors on what our current practices are," Mitchell said. "This was going to happen with or without us, so it was better that we were there to represent the industry,"
"My goal was to go in there and to give the county and the state government a really good idea of how the industry runs, what the economics are, why you can't go in and look for a bad guy, why you can't shut the industry now - what's appropriate and what isn't," she said. "I have to admit I really found a good working relationship with the county.
"They're going to do nothing more than continue on with what AIM has already been doing and build from there," Mitchell said.
Other regulations to come: Pap smears, hepatitis testing, and a few other STDs. The one big hurdle that Mitchell anticipates from the state is in regards to condoms.
"They're will be a distinct possibility of an issue with condoms. I don't think that needs to be addressed right now, I'm trying not to address that right now, because we find know its so important to the economic structure of the industry that we really can't say that it’s a good thing," she said.
Mitchell believes that legislation will be introduced to the California legislature in the near future to make these requirements law.
