Group sues over porn industry HIV cases

LOS ANGELES, July 18 (UPI) -- California health officials have failed to address a reported HIV virus infection outbreak in the adult film industry, advocates said while filing a lawsuit.

Contending that Los Angeles County officials have ignored pleas to require film producers to have actors wear condoms while making pornographic movies, leaders of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation filed suit Friday, saying they are moving to force the county's health department to take action.

The group, in a release, said it is seeking a writ of mandate "compelling the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to discharge its ministerial and non-discretionary statutory duty to combat an acknowledged epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases stemming from production of hardcore pornography in Los Angeles County."

The group said it has resorted to a lawsuit after "exhausting all other methods to compel the county to fulfill its obligation to protect the public's health" in the wake of last month's revelation that an actress working in the adult film business had tested positive for the AIDS-causing human immunodeficiency virus.

The Los Angeles Times reported that as many as 22 pornography performers may have tested positive in the last five years for sexually transmitted diseases.