SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (SF) - THURSDAY July 21, 1988 Edition: FINAL Section: NEWS Page: B6 Word Count: 842
Lori Olszewski, Chronicle Staff Writer

"I'm not ready to die yet," said Joan, a lesbian who was diagnosed as having AIDS a year and a half ago at age 20. "I feel scared, scared that I don't know when the disease will act up again and it will happen. I don't live like I'm going to die."

Joan, a high school dropout, said that when she became ill she was preparing to join the Air Force, earn her high school degree and study nursing. Now she survives on Social Security disability checks and lives in a subsidized apartment in San Francisco's Mission District.

She is among 156 San Franciscans who are age 25 or younger and have AIDS - about 3 percent of the city's 5,086 cases as of June 30. About 13 percent, 666, of the AIDS cases in San Francisco are among young adults ages 20 to 29.

Although the numbers are small, they concern public health educators and epidemiologists because sexually active young people often do not practice safe sex.

'NUMBERS ARE UNDERREPORTED'

"Many of the people who have AIDS at age 20 to 29 were infected while they were still teenagers," said Linda Udall, assistant to the medical director in the AIDS office of the San Francisco Department of Public Health. "Also, we suspect the numbers are underreported.

"Despite the education efforts, this is not a personal issue for kids. It's something that happens to other people. The piece that is missing is for them to see other teens with the disease."

To fill that gap, Udall and others are working on a film in the Bay Area, "Learn and Live," which will show young people with AIDS talking about their lives. They plan to distribute it nationwide later this year. Joan is one of two young adults who have agreed to share their stories and their faces, if not their full names, on camera.

Some of the city's top documentary film makers are working on the project for reduced rates in an effort coordinated by the San Francisco Department of Public Health and the city's school system. One Pass Film and Video in San Francisco also has assisted, along with San Francisco attorney Angela Alioto and the South of Market Business Association.

CORPORATE SUPPORT

AT&T has provided a $10,000 grant for the project, but Udall needs additional donors to meet the film's $50,000 budget.

Catherine Hunter, the film's free-lance producer from the Kenwood Group in San Francisco, said "I think it's difficult to find someone in the city who hasn't been touched by this disease. I have friends who have it. That's one of the reasons I'm here."

After months of planning, filming began recently with two days of shooting in San Francisco and Daly City. The project, directed by Randy Field, will continue filming in September if more young people with AIDS agree to talk on camera.

Udall said any money raised from the film will be placed in a fund to be used for AIDS education for teenagers.

"It's fascinating to listen to the questions the kids have," said Hunter, describing the day her crew filmed teens receiving instruction through the Wedge, the nationally acclaimed AIDS education program in San Francisco schools. The program is believed to be the first in the nation in which people with AIDS go into classrooms to share their experiences.

Despite the success of the Wedge, Udall and Hunter said many students do not identify with the speakers, who are often gay men.

"You can watch the transformation when the kids realize these are people who watch for the baseball scores just like they do," Hunter said.

'IT COULD NEVER HAPPEN TO THEM'

"But they're still thinking it could never happen to them," she said.

Joan said she is participating in the film to make sure teens know they are vulnerable, too.

"All it takes is one night of drinking with the wrong people," said Joan.

She believes she became infected when she got drunk and people she thought were her friends used a dirty needle to shoot her up with drugs at their home in Oakland.

"I woke up with needle marks on my arm. I don't really know what happened because I was too drunk and passed out," said Joan, who said she was working as a nanny in the home where she believes she was infected. "I left home and needed a job and took what I could find."

She said she has lost touch with her parents, who were living in England the last she knew. Her father worked as a civilian with the U.S. Army managing Exchange Stores.

"I called them on Christmas in 1986 when I found out I was positive for HIV, (the human immunodeficiency virus), before I was diagnosed with AIDS. My parents didn't believe me," she said. "They'd never heard of it." CAPTION: PHOTO

In her Mission District apartment, Joan talked about being a young woman with AIDS/BY DEANNE FITZMAURICE/THE CHRONICLE

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