Nacho Vidal Confirms Role in Feb. European HIV Scare for 1st Time

CYBERSPACE—Performer/director Nacho Vidal released a video via YouTube on Wednesday in which he confirms for the first time publicly the widely circulated rumor that he was the European performer who tested positive for HIV in February, prompting a continent-wide halt to production that lasted as long as two months in some countries, as well as an overhaul of testing protocol for the European talent pool at large. In the video, which is in Spanish with English subtitles, Vidal recounts that prior to the news of the HIV-positive test—which broke February 14, without any official identification of the performer in question—he had shot scenes with seven women back-to-back on a "correct" test he'd taken about a week beforehand. He also notes that at some point either amidst shooting that block of scenes or immediately beforehand, he took a second test in preparation for a planned trip to Colombia, which he said he wanted to make "knowing that I'm clean!" He continued shooting the scenes at hand using the previous test, however, because it was still good under the standard testing window (which at the time was 28 days, but has since been changed to 14 days for the majority if not all of Europe)—in fact, he mentions that at this point in time the first test was 10 days old. "And much to my surprise," he continues, "on the last day ... last day of shooting, after finishing the scene with the last girl, they called from the office and they said, 'Nacho, we have received the test you took the other day ... but something isn't right. ... You tested positive for HIV.'" Vidal goes on to explain that he immediately had his secretary send a message to all seven of the women he'd worked with stating, "Nacho has tested positive for HIV. Please stop working, test yourself, enter quarantine, don't go to bed with anybody, don't have sex with anybody until you know you're OK." He also notes that he informed those in a WhatsApp group for industry producers and agencies in Budapest of his status, and called for them to immediately halt all production. In addition, he says, he paid for each of the seven scene partners involved to take a "special test" that can detect an infection within two days of exposure, and all seven were found negative. Vidal then spends the remainder of the nearly 16-minute video berating those who publicly "attacked" him, as he characterizes it, in the wake of his private messages to certain industry members about his status getting leaked to the media. In particular, he condemns the "bullying" he received on social media and the news reports about the situation that were published by Spanish outlets El Nacional and El Español, one of which (it's not clearly specified) he says his lawyers have sued for €2 million over its story. Curiously, Vidal ends the video by stating that he intends to show proof in a follow-up video—in the form of test results and footage of him having his blood drawn—"that Nacho Vidal ... doesn't have AIDS." What Vidal means by this remains to be seen, but it should be noted that carrying the HIV virus is a pre-condition to developing AIDS and not synonymous with having the disease. In addition, antiretroviral medications are available that can make an HIV-positive person's viral load undetectable to testing.  See Vidal's entire video statement below: Screen shot taken from Nacho Vidal's official YouTube channel.