"Most of the people I know are going to start insisting on using condoms," said Samson, who has appeared in 16 adult videos. "It's your life you're talking about. I think now it's a huge eye-opener."
Mitchell says that she thinks the HIV scare will lead to more frequent testing of porn stars. Additionally, Mitchell's clinic is putting together a database of which performers have had sex with other performers and the type of sex they had during productions to better track any future spread of HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases.
"Screening alone is insufficient to protect these performers," according to Dr Jonathan Fielding, director of public health for Los Angeles County.
"Sex needs to be protected sex. In all other industries, worker protection is important. You don't go to a construction site and find workers not wearing hard hats," he said.
Not everyone agrees. "The safest sex you can have is on camera," said Tim Connelly, the publisher of Adult Video News Magazine. By Connelly's figuring, in the six years since the last HIV outbreak in the straight porn industry, more than 25,000 sex scenes have been shot. By that measure, Connelly said, the most recent outbreak represents an infection rate of about three people for every 10,000 sex scenes performed.
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