Random HIV testing of Bermuda's population would reveal that at least 2,000 people carry the AIDS virus, the head of the support organisation STAR believes.

"There are large numbers of people out there who are HIV positive and don't know it,'' Mrs. Carolyn Armstrong warned at the third annual Hospice Conference yesterday.

"There are a lot of people who have not been tested and won't get tested until they fall ill. It is unfortunate in Bermuda that we do not follow up on our health as we should.'' Mrs. Armstrong made the staggering estimation while addressing the conference topic "Grief and Bereavement''.

The magnitude of the AIDS problem facing Bermuda has caused STAR and Agape House hospice officials to push for more at-home public health care and Government funding for AIDS victims and their families.

Funding was needed especially to deal with the rising number of AIDS orphans, which hospice coordinator Mrs. Hilary Soares said was "growing in leaps and bounds''.

More home health care services for people with AIDS would eliminate the need to significantly increase bed space at the hospice and the Light House -- a halfway house for HIV-carriers, she believed.

"If we help families to look after their own it will be a lot more cost effective and comfortable for those involved,'' she said.

Before the year 2000, statistics indicate nearly every family will have or know of a terminally ill person, she said.

"This is an indication of how very serious at-home health care will be.'' Mrs. Soares added that while the medical debate over whether HIV actually causes AIDS raged on, people should "keep an open mind until all the work is in''.

"If HIV doesn't cause AIDS, then what does?'' she asked.

Agape House hospice nurse Miss Tina Trust, who has worked at a London hospice and plans to pursue a degree in palliative care, noted the importance of treating the dying with trust and respect.

The sexuality of a terminally ill person was often forgotten by health professionals and care givers who only saw a gowned patient before them, not a male or female sexual being.

Miss Trust said information about a dying person's condition should not be kept from them. And they should be assisted as much as possible in their wishes to settle guilt feelings and finances before their death.

Another speaker, Mrs. Barbara Thomas, who recently lost her mother to cancer, urged anyone who knew of a terminally ill person, not to let them die alone.

"Patients love to be loved, touched and cared for,'' she said.

Mrs. Armstrong said the halfway home for people with AIDS, which she and her husband run and reside in, was a key place for them to come to grips with having the killer disease and getting on with life.

The seven-bedroom Light House in Smith's Parish offered private grounds for residents to roam or work in and an interior like any family home, she said.

Volunteers came bearing home-cooked food and spent time with the HIV-positive residents as "buddies''.

It was a dream come for true for her when in May 1993 STAR acquired the house after a long search. It was also "a dream house'' to those who lived in it.

The six HIV-positive men currently living there had come either because they were afraid of being alone in their own apartments, had no home, or needed the care, counselling and proper nutrition provided by herself, other volunteers and visiting medical and social workers.

They were not sick enough to live in the hospice, she said. Some went out to work daily. And those that needed drug or alcohol counselling attended such services, where they "left their street life behind''.

Mrs. Armstrong noted the Light House would soon be seeing its first female resident.

Women with HIV tended to remain independent longer than men, she noted.

She added the increasing number of AIDS orphans was a disturbing situation in Bermuda.

Many were in the school system and needed special counselling which was not available, she said.

And the extended families caring for most of the youngsters needed special financial help.

Mrs. Soares asked Mrs. Armstrong after her address how many residents she estimated were HIV-positive.

"I would dare to say today, that I would not be surprised if we did random tests for HIV, a good 2,000 people would be HIV positive,'' Mrs. Armstrong said.

"Even if I had never read the statistics, listening to the people we work with and the communities that they come out of, 2,000 is a small number of people. And I am not even talking about the people who have passed on (died of AIDS).'' Statistics showed there were 300 people known to have HIV in Bermuda, she added.