Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1991. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press; Wednesday, September 18, 1991
Scott Williams, Associated Press
The statement from the Centers for Disease Control is staggeringly scary: "The number of diagnosed AIDS cases among adolescents aged 13 to 19 has more than doubled in the 18 months ending June 1991."
That's more than enough reason to drag your teen-agers to the TV, kicking and screaming if need be, and insist they watch In the Shadow of Love: A Teen AIDS Story.
Once you get them in front of the tube, you ought to sit down with them. There's something here for parents, too.
That the drama happens to be brisk, well-acted and endorsed by U.S. Surgeon General Antonia Novello is incidental. It's good enough that maybe your teen-ager will watch and listen and learn.
The program has caused some unusual collaboration between television networks. PBS airs the one-hour drama tonight at 8, and ABC airs it at 4 p.m. Thursday. (WPBF-Channel 25 in Palm Beach County will air it, but WPLG-Channel 10 will not.)
In the Shadow of Love: A Teen AIDS Story stars Jennifer Dundas as Katie, an aspiring journalist and anchor of her Boston high school's television news program. She's a good student, outgoing, and she doesn't use drugs.
Lisa Diaz plays Lisa, a street-smart classmate who's assigned as her video camera operator, and Jim O'Connor plays Wayne, Katie's boyfriend.
The two girls have little in common. Lisa initially dislikes Katie, but they decide to collaborate on a story about a support group for teen-agers who are HIV-positive.
According to WGBH, the accounts of the support group teens are based on interviews with actual, HIV-positive teens. The young actors who portray them are touchingly effective.
It's only after the girls visit an AIDS counselor, played by playwright-actor Harvey Fierstein, that they learn they have something in common: Both of them are sexually active and have engaged in high-risk behavior.
The conclusion of the film is as devastating as it is unexpected. The PBS broadcast ends with a poignant, 10-minute report that includes interviews with very brave people who became HIV-positive as teens.
The message of In the Shadow of Love: A Teen AIDS Story is straightforward:
Teen-agers who engage in unprotected sex are risking infection with HIV, the precursor of AIDS.
The program also makes clear that high-risk behavior is not limited to "traditional" high risk groups such as male homosexuals or IV drug users who who share needles and the people who have sex with them.
Having unprotected sex with ANYBODY infected with HIV can infect ANYBODY else.
CDC studies suggest that the incidence of HIV infection in some groups of teens is higher than among adults.
In teen-age girls, the incidence of AIDS is three times higher than among adult women: 37 percent of all teen-agers diagnosed with AIDS are female, compared with 10 percent of all adults with the disease.
Copyright 1991/The Associated Press. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Permissions Desk, The Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020.
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Copyright © 1991 - Associated Press. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the AP Permissions Desk.
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