Young people were warned by the Health Minister today that Aids and HIV were on the rise among young people in Eastern Europe and Maltese youths should 'take no risks' when Malta had an influx of foreign students.

"Aids is a disease which is not not so far away. All it takes is one sexual indiscretion and you get the virus" Joseph Cassar told students at the Junior College during a World Aids Day event.

He said that the incidence of Maltese young people having sex while drunk was 2% higher than the EU average.

"This is worrying, as this might impair decisions. Are we to take big decisions, such as who to share our sexuality with, while drunk?"

Furthermore, he said, alcohol reduced a person's immunity and made them more susceptible to disease.

"Aids is a condition which we can control through what we do, when we do it, and what we use. These are all our decisions," Dr Cassar said.

Stephen Spiteri, parliamentary assistant, said that in his student days, the fear of Aids was much stronger than it is now. It was important, he stressed, that young people where careful in what they did.

81 Maltese have been diagnosed with HIV since 1986 and 57 died of Aids.