World health bosses have highlighted Bermuda as one of the places that is giving grounds for optimism in the battle against HIV infection and AIDS.

As the worldwide number of people infected by the disease continues to grow and is now above 40 million, the one place where there has been a measurable decline is in the Caribbean, including Bermuda.

But while welcoming the declining number of AIDS cases and HIV infections, Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Cann said yesterday he was worried about the younger generation.

He fears that those too young to have witnessed the frightening reality of the disease at its most rampant in the late 1980s and 1990s were less likely to heed the safe sex messages that helped curb the infection rates.

?We saw our first case on the Island in the early 1980s and the worst period was the late 1980s and early 1990s,? said Dr. Cann. ?Access to anti-virals has contributed to the changing picture, but the challenge for us is to maintain that progress.

?It has been contained. It is probably a combination of good treatment and a positive message. The real problem is to continue the good quality care and continue to educate the young.?

He added: ?There are young people who have not seen the ravages of the disease in the 1980s and 1990s, and they now see patients who are living longer and have a better quality of life, and so they are not that worried even though this is a disease that can be fatal.?

The Island has seen a steady decline in the number of AIDS cases since a peak in the mid-1990s and last year there were only eight AIDS-related deaths compared with 76 in 1995.

Better medication and education has played a major part in the fight against the disease in Bermuda, as recognised by the World Health Organisation in its joint latest findings with the UN programme on HIV and AIDS contained in the report AIDS Epidemic Update 2005.

?Several recent developments in the Caribbean region ? in Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Dominican Republic and Haiti ? give cause for guarded optimism with some HIV prevalence declines evident among pregnant women, signs of increased condom use among sex workers and expansion of voluntary HIV testing and counselling,? said the report.

?Despite decreases in the rate of infection in certain countries, the overall number of people living with HIV has continued to increase in all regions of the world except the Caribbean.?

There are an estimated 40.3 million people with HIV around the world.

Dr. Cann said Bermuda had experienced a very high rate of infection per capita and high level in increasing infection, but this rate has now levelled off and is declining.