Returning to Work ? Somethings You Should Know…

September 3, 2012, Labor Day, ironically, is the day that the FSC/APHSS has determined to be the best day to return adult performers to a regular production schedule, a mere 10 days after receiving a prophylactic antibiotic shot to hopefully cure the syphilis outbreak in the industry. Now that the moratorium on production has been lifted, be safe and here’s some facts that you should know before you head off to set;

• There are 9 performers in adult confirmed positive for syphilis as of today;
• Syphilis may take up to 90 days to detect through testing with the average range being 21 days;
• Once you test positive for syphilis you may always test positive for syphilis;
• If you are receiving your test results through APHSS you may not know that you are working with another performer that previously tested positive for syphilis – the APHSS database only tells you whether someone is “cleared” to work;
• There is a disagreement between APHSS and TTS as to the proper test to use to detect syphilis;
• APHSS states that their required and mandatory re-test can detect syphilis at 14 days while TTS states two tests are necessary to detect it this quickly.
• Only 300 performers opted to take the antibiotic shot;
• Despite the moratorium on production, there were some production companies and agents that continued to book scenes;
• Some performers continued to escort during the moratorium;
• Condoms may not protect you from catching or spreading syphilis;
• Treatment for syphilis may make birth control pills ineffective;
• Often those with syphilis do not show any symptoms of the disease;
• In the primary and secondary stages syphilis is very contagious;
• If a performer’s off camera sex partner(s) were not treated it is possible to reinfect those that were treated;
• An antibiotic shot is not a vaccine and a performer can be reinfected quite easily;
• If you catch syphilis, receive treatment and then get reinfected it will require 1 shot a week for 3 weeks to cure it;
• Having an open syphilis sore makes it 2 to 5 times more likely that you can transmit/contract HIV during sex.

If there are any facts I have let off this list please feel free to add a comment to this article and I will add them to the list.