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DURBAN, South Africa - A U.N.-sponsored study of AIDS infection among infants has dashed the hopes of scientists who thought they had found a simple way to prevent mothers from giving their infants the AIDS virus during breast-feeding. PHOTO: Associated Press /Denis Farrell A baby with AIDS lies in her crib at the Cotlands Children's Hospice in Johannesburg, South Africa. AIDS experts meet in Durban this Sunday

DURBAN, South Africa -- A U.N.-sponsored study of AIDS infection among infants has dashed the hopes of scientists who thought they had found a simple way to prevent mothers from giving their infants the AIDS virus during breast-feeding. For about the last five years, doctors have been giving women in the United States and elsewhere infected with HIV, the AIDS virus, one of two treatments during pregnancy to prevent the spread of the disease to their unborn children. The infants were treated in the first few days after birth,and an earlier study showed significant reductions in AIDS infections in the first six weeks of life. The success had been hailed as one of the rare triumphs in the war against AIDS. The new challenge for AIDS researchers and government officials is to preserve the benefit ofdrug therapy in pregnancy and find safe alternatives to breast-feeding. That is a formidable task in Africa where the overwhelming majority of women breast-feed their infants for long periods. Poverty limits the ability of women to buy formula and breast-milk substitutes. Widespread contamination of water supplies and poor sanitation make it dangerous to mix formula. Also, male domination leaves many women with little ability to choose an alternative to breast-feeding. And a woman who avoids breast-feeding her infant can be stigmatized as having AIDS

A U.N.-sponsored study of AIDS infection among infants has dashed the hopes of scientists who thought they had found a simple way to prevent mothers from giving their infants the AIDS virus during breast-feeding

These and similar messages have sprung up in recent months on billboards along South Africa's main highways, on trains, near schools and in cities and rural areas as part of a campaign to encourage young people to talk freely about sex and the risks of teen-age pregnancy, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The erotic and hard-hitting phrases are part of a down-to-earth campaign aimed at reducing by half the rate of infection from HIV, the AIDS virus, in South Africa in five years. The 4.2 million HIV-infected people in South Africa represent the largest such group in the world. Love Life's spokeswoman, Judi Nwokedi, described her organization's campaign as the boldest sex education campaign ever conducted in South Africa at a news conference sponsored by the American Medical Association on Saturday, the eve of the 13th International Conference on AIDS, which will be held here

These and similar messages have sprung up in recent months on billboards along South Africa's main highways, on trains, near schools and in cities and rural areas as part of a campaign to encourage young people to talk freely about sex and the risks of teenage pregnancy, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The erotic and hard-hitting phrases are part of a down-to-earth campaign aimed at reducing by half the rate of infection from HIV, the AIDS virus, in South Africa in five years. The 4.2 million HIV- infected people in South Africa represent the largest such group in the world. The train was to arrive in Durban on Saturday for the AIDS meeting. Love Life also uses the train to educate groups of schoolchildren about sex and AIDS

It is UNAIDS's second comprehensive report on the global epidemic of AIDS. The first report was published two years ago in conjunction with the last international AIDS conference, in Geneva. That report painted a bleak picture of AIDS, showing one in four people were infected in parts of Africa. In the new report, UNAIDS calculated for the first time the impact of AIDS on young people, the very individuals who are most often infected by HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. HIV, which has been spread primarily through heterosexual sex in Africa, is wiping out many households, devastating national economies and killing off so many teachers that it is undermining the delivery of basic education, Dr. Peter Piot, the head of UNAIDS, said from Geneva

South Africa is the country with the largest number of people infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS -- 4.2 million. And its president, who has become embroiled in an international dispute over the disease, pledged to intensify his response to the AIDS epidemic. But he dashed the hopes of thousands of participants, and noisy protesters, who wanted to hear him state clearly that H.I.V. causes AIDS. ''AIDS exists,'' said Mrs. Madikizela-Mandela, the ex-wife of former President Nelson Mandela and a political leader in her own right. ''H.I.V. causes AIDS. We cannot proclaim this century the African century and then ignore the AIDS pandemic as some political leaders are.'' He criticized the scientific community for not having published a summary statement earlier of all of the scientific evidence that H.I.V. causes AIDS. Now, by giving a platform to a small group of dissidents, Mr. [Thabo Mbeki] has helped to divert efforts to fight AIDS, Dr. van der [Horst] said

A U.N.-sponsored study of AIDS infection among infants has dashed the hopes of scientists who thought they had found a simple way to prevent mothers from giving their infants the AIDS virus during breast-feeding. Scientists had hoped the treatment would be an effective weapon in their broad effort to shield very young children from the AIDS epidemic in Africa, without the need to tackle the difficult issue of breast-feeding, which is a medical risk but a cultural, religious or economic necessity for millions of African women. The new study, which involved 1,797 people and was the largest ever performed on the transmission of AIDS from mothers to children, followed children who were born to these mothers and found that by 18 months the initial benefit was completely lost as the infants who had been spared infection at birth later became infected through breast- feeding

Love Life's spokeswoman, Judi Nwokedi, described her organization's campaign as the boldest sex-education campaign ever conducted in South Africa at a news conference sponsored by the American Medical Association on Saturday, the eve of the 13th International Conference on AIDS, which is being held in South Africa. These and similar messages have sprung up in recent months on billboards along South Africa's main highways, on trains, near schools and in cities and rural areas as part of a campaign to encourage young people to talk freely about sex and the risks of teenage pregnancy and AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The hard-hitting phrases are part of a down-to-earth campaign aimed at reducing by half the rate of infection from HIV, the AIDS virus, in South Africa in five years. The 4.2 million HIV-infected people in South Africa represent the largest such group in the world

These and similar messages have sprung up in recent months on billboards along South Africa's main highways, on trains, near schools and in cities and rural areas as part of a campaign to encourage young people to talk freely about sex and the risks of teenage pregnancy, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The erotic and hard-hitting phrases are part of a down-to-earth campaign aimed at reducing by one-half the rate of infection from H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, in South Africa in five years. Love Life's spokeswoman, Judi Nwokedi, described her organization's campaign as the boldest sex education campaign ever conducted in South Africa at a news conference sponsored by the American Medical Association today, the eve of the 13th International Conference on AIDS, which will be held here