LA Health Officials Close Porn Industry's Clinic

(Dec. 10) -- Health officials in California shut down a clinic that served the pornography industry, denying an operating license to a center that has provided medical treatment to adult film stars for years.

The Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, or AIM, was ordered closed Thursday by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health because the center failed to submit the materials necessary to meet the state's standard of a medical clinic, the department said in a statement.

The shutdown of the Sherman Oaks, Calif., clinic was ordered just a day after Derrick Burts, a former adult film star, complained that he had received poor care from the clinic when he tested positive for HIV in October. "I waited to get linked with medical care, but they would hang up on me when I called," Burts told The New York Times.

There have been growing concerns about the safety of the adult film business, which is under scrutiny from critics who say the industry should mandate the use of condoms for its performers.

Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, called AIM, a nonprofit partially funded by the porn industry, a "sham clinic" and praised the decision of health officials.

"After years of total inaction, Los Angeles County officials have finally shut down AIM -- the porn industry's sham clinic," Weinstein said in a statement to NBC Los Angeles. "Now it's time for the county to go after the producers themselves who have been operating with impunity outside the law. Public health officials must shut down every permitted adult film shoot in Los Angeles County until the industry complies with state and federal laws requiring condom use."

Burts, 24, who was known as "Patient Zeta" until he decided to speak out publicly this month, told the Los Angeles Times that porn stars should wear protection. "It's very dangerous," he said of working as a performer in an adult film. "It should be required that you wear a condom on the set."

Darren James, a former adult film star who tested positive for HIV in 2004, unknowingly infected three other performers. He has also advocated for condom use in porn films. James said Burts' diagnosis proves that the industry still hasn't learned the lessons from six years ago. "I knew it was going to happen. And how many years has it been? Again. They went right back to the same habits," he told the Los Angeles Times.

A call to AIM was not immediately returned today. On its website, the center called the closing a "temporary situation" and said it was "rapidly moving forward" to complete its license.