Derrick Burts, a 24-year-old adult film star who performed in both gay and straight X-rated movies under the stage names “Derek Chambers” and “Cameron Reid” during a brief run in the porn industry, has identified himself as the catalyst of the first HIV/AIDS scare to hit the XXX scene since professional fucker Darren James tested positive for the virus in 2004.
Burts says he is Patient Zeta, the anonymous porn performer who made headlines after testing positive for the HIV-virus at the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIM Clinic) in Sherman Oaks in October. The news caused the closure of the multi-billion porn industry for several weeks on fears of a possible outbreak. Burts claims he also contracted herpes, gonorrhea and chlamydia while working in porn, where he says he earned $200 to $800 to perform with women and $1,000 to $2,000 for scenes with men. With his shortlived career as a sex worker over and his health hanging in the balance, Burts is now calling for mandatory condom use — a dreaded phrase in the still rich but struggling industry.
The staff at the clinic that did the testing told Derrick they wanted to perform a follow-up test and begin notifying performers he had worked with since his last negative test result Sept. 3. He was told those performers would be placed on a quarantine list and also would be tested.
When Burts returned to the clinic Oct. 23 to review the second test results, he said he was told that the clinic had traced his HIV infection to a fellow actor they described as a “known positive.” Burts says the gay sex star who was determined by AIM to have sexually transmitted the disease to him still remains unidentified and is still active in the industry. The clinic would not identify the performer because of patient confidentiality and in a statement last month said he had acquired the virus through “private, personal activity.”
“That’s completely false,” Burts told The Los Angeles Times Wednesday. “There is no possible way. The only person I had sex with in my personal life was my girlfriend.”
Burts says he was made to wait six weeks by the AIM clinic for follow-up treatment, which led him to anonymously seek help from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest non-profit and government funded AIDS organization in the world, who is helping him obtain proper medical treatment.
“AIM likes to state that testing is enough. That’s completely false,” says the twentysomething, who worked as a hotel manager and cruise ship magician before the promise of a lucrative salary seduced him into becoming a porn performer. “It’s very dangerous. It should be required that you wear a condom on the set…Making $10,000 or $15,000 for porn isn’t worth your life. Performers need to be educated.”
So far, Derrick’s girlfriend, a fellow adult film star, has tested negative for HIV.
Burts says he is Patient Zeta, the anonymous porn performer who made headlines after testing positive for the HIV-virus at the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIM Clinic) in Sherman Oaks in October. The news caused the closure of the multi-billion porn industry for several weeks on fears of a possible outbreak. Burts claims he also contracted herpes, gonorrhea and chlamydia while working in porn, where he says he earned $200 to $800 to perform with women and $1,000 to $2,000 for scenes with men. With his shortlived career as a sex worker over and his health hanging in the balance, Burts is now calling for mandatory condom use — a dreaded phrase in the still rich but struggling industry.
The staff at the clinic that did the testing told Derrick they wanted to perform a follow-up test and begin notifying performers he had worked with since his last negative test result Sept. 3. He was told those performers would be placed on a quarantine list and also would be tested.
When Burts returned to the clinic Oct. 23 to review the second test results, he said he was told that the clinic had traced his HIV infection to a fellow actor they described as a “known positive.” Burts says the gay sex star who was determined by AIM to have sexually transmitted the disease to him still remains unidentified and is still active in the industry. The clinic would not identify the performer because of patient confidentiality and in a statement last month said he had acquired the virus through “private, personal activity.”
“That’s completely false,” Burts told The Los Angeles Times Wednesday. “There is no possible way. The only person I had sex with in my personal life was my girlfriend.”
Burts says he was made to wait six weeks by the AIM clinic for follow-up treatment, which led him to anonymously seek help from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest non-profit and government funded AIDS organization in the world, who is helping him obtain proper medical treatment.
“AIM likes to state that testing is enough. That’s completely false,” says the twentysomething, who worked as a hotel manager and cruise ship magician before the promise of a lucrative salary seduced him into becoming a porn performer. “It’s very dangerous. It should be required that you wear a condom on the set…Making $10,000 or $15,000 for porn isn’t worth your life. Performers need to be educated.”
So far, Derrick’s girlfriend, a fellow adult film star, has tested negative for HIV.
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