I was on Twitter today and found out that a female performer popped positive for HIV.

No, we didn’t learn about this through an industry warning and shut down while a confirmation test was given. We learned about it because she was upset about her results.

Normally when a performer tests positive for HIV, the industry is issued a warning, and the performer in question is given a confirmation test. During that time, nobody should be shooting – just in case.

When that confirmation test comes back and is proven to be false, then everyone goes back to work.  This usually takes 24 to 48 hours. Although in this particular case, the performer said she went days before she was given her confirmation test. All the while, the industry knew nothing, as no moratorium was called. No warning bells sounded.

If the confirmation test comes back positive, then the process of contact tracing begins, and the notification all of his or her scene partners are contacted and asked to come in to take their own HIV tests.

This is when the industry goes into full shut down while all of those people are tested. This could take ten days or so, although in a few rare cases in the past, it’s taken as long as two and a half weeks to complete this step.

It sucks that we have to shut down, but in the end, it’s for the safety and well-being of our industry.

In this case, luckily, it was a false positive, and the female performer who tested positive for HIV does not, in fact, have HIV.

False positives are not uncommon. According to the CDC, the number is about 2% in the United States. However, other countries that use different sensitivity tests have much higher numbers. In some cases, false positives can be as high as 6%.

This is the reason why an HIV diagnosis is never made on the basis of a single test result. All reactive (potentially positive) results are checked with extra confirmatory tests.

The positive predictive value of a testing algorithm using a sequence of two or three different tests is almost 100%. If a positive result has been confirmed in this way, you can be confident that it is accurate.

• Many HIV tests have 99% sensitivity. A test with this sensitivity would identify 99% of HIV-positive people but would miss 1% of them. They would get ‘false negative’ results.
• A sub-optimal test, with only 94% sensitivity, would identify 94% of HIV-positive people, but miss 6% of them.

If you have a negative result on a highly sensitive test (for example, over 99%), you are unlikely to have HIV. However, if you have a ‘reactive’ or ‘positive’ result, even with a sensitive test, that result needs to be confirmed with follow-up testing. If you rely on a single test result, it could be a false positive.

Testing centers aren’t responsible for these false positives. False positives aren’t a mistake on behalf of the testing center. They are the nature of how the test itself works. This again is why no single test can be used to determine if a person has HIV. A confirmation test (sometimes even three of them) are needed.

If you pop positive with test A, you are often called in to redo test A, but also test using another kind of HIV test. And it’s very possible to take three different types of HIV tests, and only one of two of them catch it. There are a ton of factors that go into these different types of tests.

In the case of this HIV+ test, the performer got their initial test done through Talent Testing. This means the performer probably got the Gold Standard Panel (GSP) which is what all performers have done.

• HIV-1 NAT
• HIV Ag/Ab
• HBsAg
• Anti-HCV
• Chlamydia
• Gonorrhea
• Trichomonas Vaginalis
• Syphilis (RPR)
• TREP-SURE EIA

Talent Testing uses two different kinds of HIV tests. The first is called HIV-1 NAT. The average window for this test is about 22 days – far superior to the 12-week window with the test given at some other facilities.

That test is called HIV-1 RNA. Google tells us that Rapid HIV tests screen antibodies, so they require a 12-week window period for an accurate result. After 12 weeks, this test is highly accurate, 99.68%.

In addition, if you use Talent Testing, you will also get a test called HIV Ag/Ab. This is what they call an antibody test. This means that anyone who is HIV will test positive even if their viral load is suppressed, simply because they have the antibodies in their system. This not only helps detect new infections with great accuracy and in less time but can reveal anyone who actually is HIV+ and trying to hide it.

I went to the PASS Twitter (@PASScertified) account to find out if they sent out a tweet-only sort of warning since no email warning went out (as they have in the past). Lots of tweets about the Monkey Pox vaccine but not a single word about a performer testing positive for HIV.

I will reach out to the head of the FSC and see if I can find out what’s going on there.

In the meantime, remember that testing is a very important part of the adult industry’s safety and standard protocols. It’s very important to test before you perform, and above all, check your partner’s test results and then go online and verify the validity of those results. You don’t want to find out later on that someone faked their test. Your safety and well-being should be above all else.

** Update: I spoke to a rep from the FSC who tells me they didn’t call for a halt in production because, quite simply, they weren’t notified by TTS of this performer testing positive for HIV, which implies this was a failure on the part of TTS and not the PASS system. I did check the PASS website, and it does list TTS, so I’m not sure why performer test results are not being reported to PASS, but that is what they said.