AIDS, says a leading expert on the disease in the Caribbean nations.

Dr. Errol Morrison, currently on the Island as guest speaker at tonight's annual general meeting of the Bermuda Diabetes Association, says the disease has become the leading cause of suffering and death in the Caribbean.

The problem is that many of those diagnosed as being diabetic are capable of controlling the disease and affecting their own quality of life through better nutritional guidelines and exercise, but don't realise that fact.

"The diabetic who knows more lives more,'' Dr. Morrison says, suggesting that diabetics can enjoy a greater quality of life and live longer by taking control of the disease rather than allowing it to control them.

"It's a serious, silent condition,'' says Mrs. Barbara Willis, president of the Bermuda Diabetes Association. "Many people have it and are not even aware that they do.'' It's with that thought in mind that the association offers regular free blood sugar screenings to Bermuda residents, one of which will be tonight at 7 p.m., before the annual meeting starts at the Anglican Cathedral Hall on Church Street. For every diabetic who has been diagnosed with the disease, there is likely at least one other case which is not known about, Mrs. Willis says.

Although there are not any hard data statistics to give a true measure of the prevalence of diabetes in Bermuda, Mrs. Willis says figures from other small nations would suggest it to be likely that as many as one in 10 Bermudians are afflicted in some way by the disease.

"We would like to do an epidemiology study of the entire Island,'' she says, but so far the only indication that diabetes is a serious problem in Bermuda is the 700 members who comprise the association. And that is likely only scratching the surface.

Figures in the Caribbean run as high as 10 to 15 percent, compared with only a two to five percent rate among larger industrialised nations such as Canada and the US. After age 65, one in every five people can expect to become diabetic in Dr. Morrison's native Jamaica, he says.

One of the focal points of Dr. Morrison's talk this evening will be how people can control the disease.

"It's a disease that really brings the population into a better quality of life,'' he says.

While diabetes is often hereditary, Dr. Morrison says findings in the Caribbean show a pattern of very little incidence of the so-called Type I diabetes where the body is incapable of producing insulin. More common are the Type II, or "adult onset'' strain of the disease, and the more recent Type III, both of which are more closely linked to abnormalities in nutrition, which can mean being either overweight or underweight. The Caribbean environment with its sugar belt seems to be another significant factor in the development of the disease.

What makes diabetes so deadly, he says, is how it contributes to and often enhances other ailments such as high blood pressure.

"Over the last 10 years, that combination has caused more deaths than all the world wars combined,'' Dr. Morrison says.

Diabetes is also the leading cause of blindness outside of people who are born without vision, and people with the disease are four times more likely to suffer a heart attack, statistics show.

STRAIGHT TALK -- Dr. Errol Morrison, president of the Diabetic Association of Jamaica, will be the guest speaker at tonight's annual general meeting of the Bermuda Diabetes Association. With Dr. Morrison is Mrs. Barbara Willis, president of the Bermuda Diabetes Association.