APHSS.org testing facilities expect to have supplies for the prophylactic syphilis treatment at their facilities as early as tomorrow, Wednesday, August 22.
Cutting Edge Testing in Fort Lauderdale is expecting to be ready by Wednesday morning, while the Van Nuys location should be supplied by Wednesday afternoon. Please , contact the facilities before arriving, to make sure they are ready to start administering testing and treatment.
VegasSTDTesting.com also will be able to provide treatment in the Las Vegas area.
For agents and producers in the Los Angeles area that have a number of performers and would like to provide treatments on site, APHSS has a concierge doctor who can come to your location. Contact Dr. Darcy at (310) 351-8814 to schedule a time for the doctor to provide this service. Dr Darcy can also service San Francisco and San Diego – if you are located in those areas, please contact Dr. Darcy to set up treatment.
If you are a performer and unable to access treatment because of your location or other issues, please contact Joanne@freespeechcoalition.com or contact (818) 348-9373.
Contact information for locations where performers can go for treatment is listed below:
Cutting Edge Testing – Van Nuys, CA Location
Dr. Peter Miao MD
(818) 386-2132
5000 Van Nuys Blvd. Suite 202, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
Hours: 10:00am to 5pm Mon–Fri
www.cuttingedgetesting.com
Cutting Edge Testing – Ft. Lauderdale, CA Location
2312 Wilton Dr.
Wilton Manners, FL 33305
(954) 745-6888
Vegas STD Testing (Two Locations)
Southeast Las Vegas Location
500 E. Windmill Lane Suite 115, Las Vegas, NV 89123
Las Vegas, NV 89123
(702) 870-1911
Monday – Friday: 9:00am to 5:30pm
Saturday – Sunday: Closed
Northwest Las Vegas Location
2051 N. Rainbow Blvd, Suite 100
Las Vegas, NV 89108
(702) 870-1911
Monday – Friday: 9:00am to 5:30pm
Saturday – Sunday: Closed
www.VegasSTDTesting.com
This recent excerpt from The Associated Press:
LOS ANGELES – Four more cases of syphilis have been found in an investigation of an outbreak among porn performers, bringing the total to nine, and the discovery of more cases is likely, Los Angeles County’s top health official said Tuesday.
Five cases were reported last week, causing a trade group for the multi-billion dollar industry to call for a halt in filming to prevent the spread of disease.
“It’s not surprising in the adult film industry that we would have transmission of all sexually transmitted diseases because they’re having unprotected sex, oftentimes with multiple actors,” said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
The current number of syphilis cases in the most recent outbreak “will grow,” said Fielding, adding that an ongoing investigation is expected to uncover more cases. The latest discoveries were made through testing of the sexual partners of the earlier cases found, he said.
All those infected are also in the industry, but it remains unclear whether they contracted the illness on- or off-set, he said.
The Free Speech Coalition called for a nationwide filming moratorium this weekend, telling performers to get tested for syphilis and to get penicillin shots before returning to sets. After performers get the shots, they can go back to work within 10 days, said FSC spokeswoman Joanne Cachapero.
Last year, 819 cases of syphilis were reported throughout Los Angeles County, said Fielding. While the number of cases in the porn community may seem small by comparison, Fielding said, “I doubt that the rate of sexually transmitted disease is higher anywhere else.”
(End of excerpt)
I love Fielding’s factually unsupported comment at the end. Medical officials should never make statements based on conjecture; to do so is completely unprofessional and a disservice to the public.
Does anybody (Michael Whiteacre?) know the actual verified number of syphilis cases related to this specific outbreak, and if the individuals are actual adult performers or not? I can see the facts getting muddled very quickly here.
Yes, Third Axis, you’ve noted that the report is carefully worded:
“Four more cases of syphilis have been found in an investigation of an outbreak among porn performers.” It doesn’t read: “Four more cases of syphilis among performers….”
“Five cases were reported last week” — not “five performers were diagnosed last week.”
Can you even imagine successive news report announcing, “Four cases of syphilis found at a South Central LA clinic” and “Five more cases found in South Central LA syphilis outbreak”? This is politics.
It’s in the interest of LA County’s Fielding and Kerndt — both of whom have been extremely antagonistic to the adult industry — to play this out for as long as possible, and to link as many infected persons, even non performers, to “porn” as possible. AHF and its buddies are in control of the flow of news and information, and this places the industry in a defensive, reactive posture. All made possible by the lack of an integrated, comprehensive testing, test verification and notification system.
I’m a bit confused on the info given here and elsewhere, about testing positive for syphilis and the post-testing period. As i understand it, when a patient tests pos for the infection and is treated, it takes 10-14 days to be cured. However, after that 10-14 days, since the antibodies remain in the blood (not sure if I have this correct), the patient will continue to test pos even after being cured of the actual infection.
My question then, is how does the patient know whether he/she has been reinfected, which is obviously possible, when a pos test indication will continue even after the initial infection is gone?
There’s additional confirmatory testing that can be used to determine whether or not active syphilis is present in the patient’s system, vs. just antibodies.
And, yes, the question of re-infection is a problem — a problem which is addressed with an industry-wide policy of antibiotics. The antibiotic kills the syphilis at any stage (except people who’ve have an advanced case of approximately one year or more — and no one with syphilis for a year or more would not know it).
In the case of those who decide to take the 90 days off instead, by the end of those 90 days sufficient knowledge about the genealogy of the outbreak should exist to preclude the likelihood that those performers had ever been exposed.