A pornographic actor or a porn star is somebody who appears in pornographic movies, live sex shows or peep shows. Many actors and actresses may appear nude in films (usually filmed in explicit sexual of genres, most genres have specialists who achieve most of their recognition in a specific niche market such as bondage or strap-on sex.

Pornographic actors and sexually transmitted diseases

Because of the nature of their work, usually involving sex without condoms, pornographic actors are particularly vulnerable to AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

In the 1980s, an outbreak of AIDS led to a number of deaths of erotic actors, including John Holmes. This led to the creation of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, which helped set up a system in the U.S. adult film industry where erotic actors are tested for HIV every 30 days. All sexual contact is logged, and positive test results lead to all sexual contacts for the last three to six months being contacted and re-tested.

This resulted in low rates of HIV transmission, and hence low rates of infection among erotic actors: it has been reported that not a single HIV test was positive in the four year period prior to 2004.

In 2004, a male performer, Darren James, tested positive for HIV. One fellow porn star, Lara Roxx, was identified and tested positive for HIV. James apparently had contact with 12 other women since his previous negative HIV test, though many suspect that Lara Roxx is truly "Patient Zero," and started the epidemic, as she was previously working as a street prostitute (where she had sex without a condom) in Canada before coming to LA. Following the release of this information the heterosexual porn industry voluntarily reduced their workload for the next 30 days, as various contacts with both individuals, as well as others within the industry, re-evaluated and expanded upon their original programs dealing with this possibility.

However, accurate information about the extent of infection among those in the adult industry is unknown because no organization has ever done rigorous studies. The existing data suggest that pornographic actors have a much higher rate of STDs than the general American population. The Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation administered voluntary tests to a group consisting primarily of adult film workers. Of 483 people tested between October 2001 and March 2002, about 40% had at least one disease. Nearly 17% tested positive for chlamydia, 13% for gonorrhea and 10% for hepatitis B and/or hepatitis C.

See also

• Pornographic movie
• Glamour photography
• Fetish model
• List of big-bust models and performers
• Sex worker
• List of porn stars
  • List of bisexual porn stars
  • List of transsexual porn stars
  • List of male porn stars
    • List of gay porn stars
  • List of female porn stars
    • List of female porn stars by decade
    • List of porn stars who are lesbians
  • List of black porn stars
  • List of hispanic porn stars
• AIDS and the porn industry
• Pornography

External links

• Internet Adult Film Database
• Anna Span's Advice on Becoming a Pornstar: warning, sidebar images contain nudity
• Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation: Frequently asked questions
• Male Porn Stars Groups

Adult models | Pornography | Porn stars | Entertainment occupations | Sex workers

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