still not paying attention'', Health Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness charged yesterday.

His comments came on the heels of a startling report by executive director of the World Health Organisation's AIDS programme, Dr. Michael Merson.

Dr. Merson, according to the Times of London, this month told the International Congress on Virology in Glasgow that AIDS had claimed the lives of more than two million people worldwide.

And, he said, it was expected to wipe out three times that number of people by the end of the century.

With sexual transmission growing among heterosexuals and accounting for about 75 percent of the spread of the disease, Dr. Merson said AIDS was prevalent in Africa and Southeast Asia and was now the leading cause of death in seven US cities -- including New York and San Francisco.

He also noted that five out of every 11 adults now being infected were women.

And by 1995, the number of new infections would be spread equally between both sexes.

Pointing out that heterosexual transmission was also increasing in Bermuda, Mr. Edness told The Royal Gazette : "We're going to be a part of those doubling of statistics.

"Government would really like every one to become conscious of this and to discuss it with young people.'' Mr. Edness said while everyone in Bermuda was aware of AIDS, some people -- particularly the young, were still practising risky behaviour.

"The only thing that society has until there is a cure is to not carry out sexual high-risk behaviour,'' he stressed.

"But I don't think the message is being received in the manner that it should. We're still not as a society paying attention.

"We have to be aware that if one generation does not protect themselves, the multiplier of that affects a lot of people. It compounds and 10 years down the road the numbers can be threefold or worse.'' One attempt to get people to pay attention will be through a safe-sex advertisement campaign scheduled to be launched at the start of the new school term next month.

The campaign, which was the brainchild of Mr. Edness, will focus on encouraging young people to change their risky lifestyles, but will also encourage older people to talk to youngsters.

"The only weapon we really have is education,'' Mr. Edness said. "The kind that brings about a consciousness in the individual that makes them more cautious.'' Head copy writer for the campaign Mr. John White, of Advertising Associates, said the themes would be based heavily on statistics and research gathered in the last few months.

He said the message, which will be delivered in the form of free television and print ads, posters and other publicity material, would hammer home that unsafe sex was not to be condoned.