TV REVIEWS : AIDS Policy, Treatment Examined

The strengths and shortcomings of PBS’ “The AIDS Quarterly” series are brought out in full relief in tonight’s edition (at 9 on Channel 28, at 8 on Channels 50 and 15, at 10 on Channel 24).

Because of the virus’ pervasive nature, triggering a new crisis with depressing regularity, PBS’ decision this year to broadcast a quarterly, magazine-style show was a wise one. AIDS news breaks fast--faster than the traditionally methodical pace of public-television journalism can keep up with. This magazine, hosted by Peter Jennings, fills a need.

The magazine’s stories, though, may be too brief. The substance of the first entry, on the disease’s effect on the African American and Latino communities, is made slight by a far more penetrating report, “The Other Faces of AIDS,” that follows “The AIDS Quarterly” at 10 p.m. on Channel 28.

The “Quarterly” uses Chicago as a case study of the discriminatory manner in which resources and means to reverse AIDS have been distributed. While the Howard Brown Memorial Clinic on the city’s Anglo North Side has become a model of state-of-the-art AIDS treatment, the African American South Side and Latino West Side have gone begging. A disastrous mix of entrenched racism, successful white gay lobbying and city mismanagement have made a bad situation only worse.

But it takes “The Other Faces of AIDS” to explore, in cities from Los Angeles to Miami’s Little Haiti, why it’s worse. AIDS has exposed, according to community workers such as Rashidah Hassan and Don Edwards of the National Minority AIDS Council, a psychology of denial, homophobia and moralism widespread in many minority communities. The churches, traditionally the center of both stability and social change, have been both a help and hindrance in AIDS education and support. The media messages have been either culturally inappropriate or timid.

The picture here is nearly as hopeless--what are neighborhoods already beset by unemployment, homelessness and armed groups peddling drugs to do with this new crisis? But the picture is a full one, and overdue.

The last piece in the “Quarterly” report is a portrait of a woman infected with AIDS by her bisexual husband, who fell in love with a man just before their marriage. The sensationalist aspects of the story are toned down to make room for the real theme, which is how little AIDS research has been done for women. The result is a shocking lack of care resources for a group facing a spread of the disease.

Jennings’ interview with Dr. Mervyn F. Silverman, president of the American Foundation for AIDS Research, was unavailable for review.