The rate of AIDS infection continues to drop in Bermuda, but a rise in the number of sexually transmitted infections is causing concern.

Last year 19 new cases of AIDS were reported compared to the all-time high in 1995 of 48 cases.

According to recently-released 1999 statistics, more than 4,000 HIV tests were conducted, with 16 people testing positive for the disease that causes AIDS.

That is the lowest figure since testing began in 1985.

But Bermuda is not out of the woods. Such STIs as chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis, and herpes cause serious complications and facilitate the transmission of HIV.

Experts believe the transmission of HIV is tied to the transmission of STIs, in that if someone can catch a STI, they can catch the more fatal disease.

The statistics were released yesterday by the Chief Medical Officer John Cann.

Intravenous drug abuse is still the predominant risk factor for contracting HIV in Bermuda, remaining at 40 percent, but sexual transmission is becoming a more common factor.

By the end of December 1999, 433 cases of sexually transmitted infections were reported to the Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit of the Health Ministry.

In 1998, there were 357 cases of STIs. Chlamydia, with 223 cases, is the most common STI.

One hundred and four of the STI cases occurred in females in the 20-to-29 year-old age group.

The troubling statistic of 107 cases of STI occurred among teenagers of both sexes in the 15-to-19-year age group.

Last year 11 people died in Bermuda from AIDS. Since reporting began in the early 1980s, 437 cases of AIDS have been reported with 347 deaths.

Males account for three quarters of the Island's cases. Last year men accounted for 14 cases and five were women.

Heterosexual contact accounts for ten cases and homosexual/bisexual contact for two cases. Intravenous drug use accounts for six cases.