Government figures show.

In the eight months to the end of September, 18 people have been diagnosed with the killer virus.

The number of new cases is one less than diagnosed during the same period last year.

So far this year, 14 people have died from the disease. Between January and September 30 last year, 19 people died from AIDS-related illnesses.

The figures were produced this week by Government Information Services following specific requests by The Royal Gazette .

Up to 1992, the Health Ministry had released AIDS figures on a monthly basis.

But a decision earlier this year was made to cut back the frequency of the reports to biannual statements with the possibility of an increase to quarterly bulletins in 1993.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Government Information Services (GIS) said the intent was to report the figures with an explanatory report, possibly from an epidemiologist.

Mrs. Tina Evans Caines of GIS said the new procedure would prevent figures being "blown out of proportion'' while Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Cann said less frequent reports were partly the result of understaffing at the Ministry.

The cutback prompted an attack from Independent MP Mr. Stuart Hayward. "Any decision to withhold or cut back on information merely because people might misinterpret it is a bankrupt policy,'' he said.

The MP noted that thousands of dollars had been spent on AIDS education. "Any slackening of information flow ... by the Health Department flies in the face of its own effort.

"There are still some public officials who treat information collected with public funds as though it is their private preserve to be doled out in minute portions if and when they deem it useful.'' Last night, Information Minister the Hon. Mike Winfield countered. "The suggestion by Mr. Hayward that anybody at Government Information Service, or indeed Government, was holding back information is incorrect and erroneous.

"I take Mr. Hayward's own suggestion that information should be presented more understandably. That is what the Ministry will be doing.

"Rather than this being a curtailment of information, it is in fact the reverse.'' Sen. Winfield acknowledged that Health Ministry understaffing had made it difficult to produce the monthly reports.

"But I want to emphasise there is no attempt to curtail the flow of information to the public,'' he said.

On Tuesday, The Royal Gazette reported that Government Information Services had not supplied it with requested AIDS statistics. In fact, the figures were sent to the newspaper but went missing due to an in-office error.