The Adult Industry Medical Associates P.C. (formally Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation), also known simply as AIM or AIM Medical, was an organization that tested erotic actors for HIV and other STDs on a scheduled basis.
Most tests for the sex industry actors are done at the Foundation's offices in San Fernando Valley, Sherman Oaks and Granada Hills.[1] Each month, about 1,200 actors are tested for HIV, with results as early as 14 days after infection. This test is effective 10 days after potential infection, and anytime thereafter (HIV-1 DNA, by PCR) as compared to the alternative HIV test (HIV ELISA) which requires a six-month waiting period to be effective.[2] Other tests include such STDs as chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis.[3]
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Since the 1980s, outbreaks of HIV/AIDS within the community of erotic actors have caused a number of deaths. In response to this threat AIM was founded in 1998 by former adult entertainer Dr. Sharon Mitchell, who had left the industry in 1996 to qualify in public health counseling and sexology.[4]
The Foundation has helped set up a system in the U.S. where erotic actors in the adult film industry are tested for AIDS every 30 days. All on-camera sexual contact is logged, and a positive test result triggers the contacting and re-testing of all sexual partners during the previous three to six months. The Foundation provides secure means of sharing results via their web servers so that results cannot be forged. Prior to AIM, there had been STD testing programs in lifestyle communities including Kerista Commune, Rajneeshpuram, More University. These approaches had mixed results and were less systematic and regular.
Since 2006, AIM offers online services for selecting, scheduling, and paying for tests in affiliation with local clinics and laboratories in many cities via the SxCheck (alternatively AIM Check)website.[5]
Also, with secure online access to test results, faking of paper test results is prevented, since clients can select to privately share the results with others, as appropriate, online or by email and mobile phone.[6]
This system has resulted in low rates of HIV transmission, and hence low rates of infection, among erotic actors: reportedly, not a single HIV test in an active adult industry performer had been positive in the four-year period prior to 2004.
It was in 2004 that AIM assisted in the sex-film-industry shutdown, a quarantine that lasted fewer than 60 days.[1] A male performer, Darren James, had tested positive for HIV in April and, to prevent another HIV outbreak, an urgent search was initiated for his potentially infected partners.[4] A total of four more performers, Bianca Biaggi, Jessica Dee, Lara Roxx, and Miss Arroyo were diagnosed with the virus by the end of the testing rounds, including one unrelated case in New York.[7] James had apparently had contact with 12 women since his initial negative HIV test in March upon his return from a Brazilian film shoot.[8][9]
In 2009, the Los Angeles Public Health department and the Los Angeles Times claimed that there were 16 unreported cases of HIV among adult film actors.[10] AIM Health Care Foundation reported that these cases were actually members of the general public or people applying to work in the adult film industry that had not yet actually worked in films due to their initial test being positive.[11]
On October 12, 2010, the Foundation reported that an actor or actress have been infected with HIV. The name and gender of the person was not released to the public.[12] Vivid Entertainment and Wicked Pictures shut down porn production temporarily to avoid infection of the virus. Although Wicked Pictures has a mandatory condom policy, the company is shutting down to wait for the quarantine list.[13]
AIM Medical's patient database is presumably the source of a massive 2011 data leak containing the confidential personal information, including the real names and sexually transmitted diseases, of over 12,000 pornographic actors.[14][15] Compromised patient information is posted on the controversial website Porn Wikileaks.
AIM closed its offices and filed for bankruptcy in May 2011. A privacy lawsuit challenging AIM's handling of the patient records in light of Porn Wikileaks was the last straw for the clinic.[16]