ROME, Dec 1 (AFP) - Two thousand people have developed full-blown AIDS in Italy since the start of the year, a 12-percent drop compared to 1998, health officials said Wednesday.

But while fewer people came down with AIDS-related symptoms, the number of new infections with the Human Immune-deficiency Virus that causes AIDS rose by 4,000 to 104,000.

The total number of people with AIDS in Italy is 13,000. Researchers have identified unprotected sex as the principal cause of infection, with drug abuse second.

The 12-percent drop in new AIDS cases so far this year compares to a 40 percent fall between 1998 and 1997.

According to 1995-96 figures by the National Statistics Institute (Istat), the latest available, AIDS is the principal cause of death in Italy for men between the age of 18 and 40 and the second cause in the same age bracket for women, after breast cancer.

So far this year 200 people have died of the disease, compared to 5,000 in 1995.

Gaetano Filice, who heads the infectious disease department at the University of Pavia, warned Wednesday of the consequences of carelessness "to the point where protected sex is rejected and prostitutes are offered more money, even twice as much, if no condoms are used."

"Prevention so far was based on the old 'at risk' categories, namely drug addicts or homosexuals," he said.

"But things have changed and the person 'at risk' may be the man next door. AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease and the only weapon is a condom," he added.

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