If poster competition entries are anything to go by, Michael Fox is more right than he knows when he warned last week that young people were unaware of the risks posed by HIV and AIDS.

Just two schools entered the awareness competition timed to coincide with World AIDS Day.

That?s too bad, because the condition remains as dangerous today as ever.

To be sure, the rate of growth in the illness has slowed, as have the number of deaths.

But they have not stopped. Seven more people died of AIDS in 2003, brining the total number of Bermudians to die to 382.

And so far this year, eight more cases have been reported, bringing the total number of cases to 483. That says a good deal about survival rates and risks, particularly because the primary means of transmission is through sexual activity.

But Mr. Fox is right when he says younger people are unaware

?The young people in our community, having been born after the most serious thrust of the pandemic in the 80s and early 90s, don?t really have an understanding of what we have been through,? he said.

?Consequently (they) are subjected to making similar uninformed decisions that can have a severe impact on their lives and their futures.?

That is why a national awareness campaign is needed, and needed badly. Unless people take proper preventative measures, AIDS can easily spread. There is no vaccine and no cure. And yes, teenagers do have sexual intercourse.

The fact that people can live longer with the illness than was once the case is no reason for complacency. No sufferer would say they are happy about it and that message must get out to young people who are tempted to think that it is no big deal.

So too is the tendency, borne out of ignorance, that those who have the illness are either homosexual or drug addicts (other people). The fact is that in Bermuda, most new cases come from heterosexual relations.

Yet the stigma attached to AIDS is severe, and it is worth remembering that the first babies to be born with the condition are now approaching adulthood. Given that they contracted HIV through absolutely no fault of their own, it is immoral that they should face discrimination of any kind.

People with AIDS or HIV still need to work, socialise and get the services that healthy people expect. While the over discrimination seen in the first years of the disease has eased, covert discrimination remains a real problem.