Educational Media Reviews Online

The rate of infection with the HIV virus in the United States is about 40,000 a year, and health experts fear yet another wave of AIDS in this country and worldwide. This video focuses on the efforts of PEP/LA (Peer Education Program, Los Angeles) to stem the infection rate among teenagers and young adults through teens talking to teens. The attitude of “Why should I worry? I can just pop a few pills if I get infected” is contrasted with the ugly reality: the protease inhibitors, the “new wave” of HIV drugs, have many side effects including liver and kidney damage, lipodystrophy, nausea and vomiting and diabetes, are horrendously expensive and complicated to take, and are less and less successful at controlling HIV over the long run; cancer rates in long-term survivors are on the rise.

Internet chat rooms resulting in gay men meeting in person and having unprotected anal sex are shown to be one of the infection vectors of HIV. Health educators deplore the fact that less than two percent of the money spent on AIDS in the U.S. focuses on prevention strategies; this is contrasted with the prevention-focused policy of Uganda, where infection rates have declined greatly in recent years. Many sex education programs at the high-school level advocate “abstinence only,” which means that many young people are being infected with HIV because information about condoms and safe sex practices is simply not presented to them.

This film shows men in the final stages of AIDS, which is a shockingly graphic reminder that AIDS is still with us and many die of it. Recommended for general audiences.