An HIV/AIDS activist has expressed concern at possible complacency amongst the Island?s young about the disease.

Allan Vincent Smith Foundation(AVSF) executive director Michael Fox spoke out following the release of the latest statistics on the disease.

The figures, released by the Department of Health on Wednesday, showed that of ten new HIV cases reported in 2003, 30 percent of those infected were in the 20-29 age group.

Yesterday Mr. Fox told : ?During the 80s and 90s, when we were seeing lots of people die from AIDS, the young people today were probably too young then to see it. The young are not aware of the full ramifications of HIV infections.

?HIV was been glamorised in the media to some degree by advertising certain AIDS/HIV medication and promoting a healthy lifestyle of those with HIV/AIDS. I don?t think this is wrong but, it paints a picture to young people that HIV is okay to have. They may think ?oh, I can just pop a pill and be fine?.?

Mr. Fox pointed to the number of young single mothers on the Island as evidence that teens were still having unprotected sex. ?There is complacency among the young ? look at teen pregnancy,? he said.

?The young are still having sex, contracting STDs, and getting pregnant.?

Mr. Fox added that the foundation was keen to carry out surveys of teens to find what their sexual behaviour was.

On Wednesday Government?s Chief Medical Officer, James Cann, refused to comment on whether the young were now complacent about the disease.

But he did admit that the statistic was ?worrying? and added that more research into behavioural risk factors was needed.

?It is worrying that 30 percent of the reported HIV cases are in the 20-29 year age group because this means that they were infected at a very early age,? Dr. Cann said.

?I don?t have a series of behavioural risk factor surveys. People understand about safe sex but it is whether they act on it. We do hope to conduct more surveys on behavioural risk factors.?

Mr. Fox also suggested that the latest figures could also be misleading because not everyone has been tested.

?I think large numbers of people do not get tested but the Department of Health is encouraging it by having programmes such as Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission, where pregnant women are offered testing,? he said.

*The Maternal Health and Family Planning Clinic and the STI (sexually transmitted infections) Clinic, on Victoria Street, Hamilton offer free HIV testing to the public.