December 9, 2010 | The Biz

Patient Zeta comes out, demands condom use in porn

Derrick Burts, 24, tested positive for HIV in October. He was working in porn at the time - in straight porn as Cameron Reid and gay porn as Derek Chambers - and after his test was dubbed Patient Zeta in order to protect his identity.

The news spread through the adult industry quickly, with straight performers who had worked with Burts being quarantined and tested. (Gay studios do not bar HIV positive performers from working.)

Burts has decided to come out as Patient Zeta, and is now calling for mandatory condom use in the industry, claiming that studios are not doing enough to protect workers. In doing so he has become a pawn in the ongoing war between the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIM) and the AIDS Heathcare Foundation (AHF).

AIM, whose main purpose is to screen straight porn actors for STDs, conducted the initial test and coordinated the subsequent quarantine. It initially released a statement arguing that Burts had not contracted HIV during filming, but had acquired it during personal sexual encounters. Burts maintains he was infected on set during oral sex (as condoms, he says, were used during anal sex).

"There is no possible way. The only person I had sex with in my personal life was my girlfriend," he said. Oral sex  is considered by AIDS experts to be low risk for the transmission of HIV, leading some to wonder what Patient Zeta isn't telling us. He has also advertised as an escort on Rentboy.com, but claims he never actually worked as one.

He has since become critical of AIM, claiming it failed to provide the follow up care it promised him, and warned him against seeking advice from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a vocal critic of AIM.

Burts eventually contacted AHF's leaders, and scheduled a news conference to come out as Patient Zeta and call for tougher guidelines in the adult industry.

"AIM likes to state that testing is enough. That's completely false," he said. He added that before testing positive, he had been infected with chlamydia, gonorrhea and herpes.

You can see part of his interview after the jump.