Bermuda, it is time to question whether or not Bermuda does enough about AIDS.

There is no doubt that the AIDS figures in Bermuda and around the world are both startling and depressing. Yet despite the growing statistics, there also seems to be increasing lack of concern on the part of individuals and on the part of the groups of people who are most at risk. It seems to us that far too many people recognise and accept the message but do not heed it. Sometimes they simply do not care about themselves or their sexual partners, sometimes they believe that they are invincible and sometimes they think that even if they get HIV, the treatments are now more effective and there will be a cure in time for them. That is all irresponsible behaviour.

Irresponsible behaviour is what makes AIDS so very dangerous to everyone. You may be very careful yourself but a partner you trust may not be careful or may simply lie. It can happen to you because the responsibility is not yours alone.

New drugs and new combinations of drugs are working very well to give AIDS sufferers an extended life and a better quality of life but they are a treatment and they are not a cure. They received a great deal of publicity which had a downside. Far too many people either misunderstood or wanted to misunderstand what the treatments really were and began to think of them as a cure. Far too many people reacted with: "AIDS is not important any more. It's no longer a killer.'' We think that attitude has been partially responsible for the increasing figures.

Clearly we have to step up education so that people accept that AIDS has not been cured and is still a very great threat. Officials should not fall into the same trap as many members of the public and begin to think that the threat of AIDS is ending. The figures tell us that is not so.

We noted that over the weekend workers in the AIDS field were complaining that there is still a stigma attached to AIDS. That, of course, is because many people still see AIDS as associated with intravenous drug use or gay sex. Yet the figures show that is no longer true; while almost half of recent cases were said to be the result of IV drug use, the next largest group, accounting for one third of all new cases, were the result of heterosexual activity.

Perhaps the time has come for the Department of Health to identify how people became infected as through IV drug use or through sexual activity. In this way, the stigma would be reduced while the main at risk activities could still be identified.

The Chief Medical officer, Dr. John Cann, has it in his power to stop the officially sanctioned stigmatising of AIDS by simply limiting the reporting.

The Department of Health should be concentrating on preventing the irresponsible behaviour which spreads AIDS.