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Telling the Truth About Aids
| Article
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20698 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1992 |
1,886 Words |
| Author
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Robert Stewart
Robert Stewart is a freelance journalist specializing in
health issues. |
By the end of this century, a mere eight years hence, at least one million Americans are expected to have full-blown AIDS. The majority will be heterosexuals, many infected as teenagers. Unless a cure is found, hundreds of thousands of today's teenagers may die in their twenties.
Filmmaker Richard Panzer is focusing his talents on delivering a message to adolescents about the dangers of AIDS.
Panzer, the founder of Free Teens has combined his Yale education in filmmaking and experiences in documentary films, theater, and social action to structure the message in a way that is hard-hitting and direct, but not threatening. His approach invites discussion and thinking, not only about the consequences of mistakes but also about the desires for love and family that most teenagers express.
In the 1980s, he spent a great deal of time pondering AIDS and what it would mean to his own children. Investigating the myriad AIDS education programs and public-service announcement that were bombarding the population with weak and/or misleading messages; he thought something better could be developed.
AIDS Slide Show
Panzer created a Free Teens slide show that teaches AIDS basics. He also designed Free Teens posters that are in use in thirty states urging teenagers to be free from AIDS and drugs, to abstain and refrain. His billboard advertisements and radio spots carry the same message.
The Free Teens slide show begins by introducing basic health concepts in a simplified yet scientifically correct manner. Panzer himself grew up in a family of doctors. The slide show is endorsed by the World Medical Health Foundation.
The audience is introduced to the concept of a virus. The presentation goes on to describe the HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), which causes AIDS, as the 'stealth virus." Why stealth? HIV is able to get past the body's defense system, target the white blood cells, enter them, and take control, causing them to produce more HIV instead of white blood cells.
Next, the three stages of HIV infection are described, starting with the virus entering the body and the appearance of the flulike symptoms that most people tend to ignore. It is noted
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