contact, recent statistics show.

In the Caribbean today, "most transmission is occurring through heterosexual contact,'' according to a recent Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC) Surveillance Report.

And while intravenous drug use is still the major risk factor in Bermuda, heterosexual sex is gaining ground.

Of 21 AIDS cases reported to Bermuda's Department of Health last year, four cases, or 19 percent, were due to heterosexual contact. In 1985, none of the 17 cases reported were attributed to straight sex. And in 1989, when a record 35 cases were reported in Bermuda, only six cases, or 17 percent, were due to heterosexual contact.

In a related development, women are contracting the disease in higher proportions in Bermuda. Of the 21 reported AIDS cases last year, six of them, or 29 percent, affected women. In 1985, there were no cases of women with AIDS, while in 1989 only seven of the 35 reported cases, or 20 percent, affected women.

Intravenous drug use was reported responsible for nine of Bermuda's new cases last year, while homosexual or bisexual contact accounted for eight cases.

In a report to Bermuda's AIDS task force, Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Cann noted that while intravenous drug users remained the high risk group, "the percentage of cases occurring in drug users continues to decline.'' Of 196 persons identified as HIV infected at the end of last year, 77 reported intravenous drug use, 59 identified themselves as homosexual or bisexual men, and 49 identified heterosexual contact only.

The CAREC report, which includes Bermuda among the 19 countries it surveys, said AIDS cases among women increased more than tenfold, to 261 (31 percent of cases) in 1991, from 22 (17 percent) in 1985.

There has been "a shift from a predominantly homosexual spread seen earlier in the epidemic towards the present pattern where most transmission is occurring through heterosexual contact,'' the report said.

Meanwhile, Health and Social Services Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness said the momentum needed to defeat AIDS is growing in Bermuda.

But there is still too much complacency among Bermudians in the 15 to 27 age group, Mr. Edness said.

"I'm trying to find a way to stimulate action, particularly to cause certain groups of people to change their lifestyles,'' he added.

Pointing to Government's most recent AIDS statistics, Mr. Edness noted that more than half of the 21 new cases reported in Bermuda in 1992 occurred in the age group of 30 to 39.

Because of the typical length of time it takes for the disease to advance from the HIV virus to full-blown AIDS, the high incidence of AIDs among people in their 30s is evidence of unprotected sex or drug use by those in their teens and 20s, he said.

Mr. Edness has turned to the advertising industry to find a way to reach those in the "most sexually promiscuous'' age group. "I'm quite optimistic that we're going to have something worthwhile at the end of it.'' He praised the fact Bermudians were recognising it was not solely a Government problem. Private groups, churches, and others were getting involved.