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Hopes for a vaccine against AIDS were set back today at the 12th World AIDS Conference here when researchers reported that a vaccine made from a weakened simian virus and injected into monkeys had caused the disease it was designed to prevent. Dr. (Anthony S.) Fauci said the new findings showed that he and other Federal officials were correct in urging caution in testing vaccines made from artificially weakened, or attenuated, AIDS virus. More than 300 doctors in the United States and elsewhere have pleaded with the United States Food and Drug Administration to let them become human guinea pigs for a similar experimental vaccine made from a weakened H.I.V. The Therion Biologics Corporation of Cambridge, Mass., is trying to develop such a human AIDS vaccine. In 1993 Dr. (Ruth) Ruprecht began her experiments by injecting nine newborn monkeys with the weakened S.I.V. vaccine developed by Dr. Ronald Desrosiers of the New England Primate Center in Southboro, Mass. Although she had reported earlier that some of these monkeys became ill, today she said, ''we have some rather sobering news'' that all newborn monkeys given the vaccine are ill or dead. Of the nine newborn monkeys injected with the weakened S.I.V., six have developed simian AIDS and five of them have died. The remaining three monkeys are ill or have immunological abnormalities related to simian AIDS

The mood was a sharp contrast to the euphoria at the last AIDS meeting, in Vancouver, British Columbia, two years ago. There, scientists reported that combinations of new drugs, called protease inhibitors, had allowed many people infected with HIV, the AIDS virus, to leave their deathbeds, even to return to work. Dr. Hoosen Coovadia, of Durban, South Africa, said AIDS affects 40 percent of the children he treats in a large hospital there. Yet, Coovadia, who is chairman of the next World AIDS Conference in 2000 in Durban, said that he had never used any anti-HIV drugs. His hospital cannot afford them, he said. Reports like these lead to the conclusion that the best hope for easing the epidemic is still prevention, speakers said. Yet 'over 100 times more money is being spent on therapeutics now than on the development of prevention technologies,' said Dr. Catherine Hankins, an epidemiologist at Montreal General Hospital in Canada. Among them are chemicals that could be inserted into the vagina before sexual intercourse to kill HIV. Hankins left the meeting saying she did not feel 'terribly optimistic.'

A series of reports about new problems with anti-AIDS drugs and setbacks in vaccine trials left many participants thinking their best hope against the epidemic is the strategy they have had since it began -- prevention. The mood was a sharp contrast to the euphoria at the last AIDS meeting, in Vancouver, British Columbia, two years ago. There, scientists reported that combinations of new drugs, called protease inhibitors, had allowed many people infected with HIV, the AIDS virus, to leave their deathbeds, even to return to work. As Dr. Hoosen Coovadia, of Durban, South Africa, explained it, AIDS affects 40 percent of the children he treats in a large black hospital there. Yet, Coovadia, who is chairman of the next World AIDS Conference in 2000 in Durban, said he had never used any anti-HIV drugs. His hospital cannot afford them, he said

A series of reports about new problems with anti-AIDS drugs and setbacks in vaccine trials left many participants thinking that their best hope against the epidemic is the strategy they have had since it began: prevention. The mood was a sharp contrast to the euphoria at the last AIDS meeting, in Vancouver, British Columbia, two years ago. There, scientists reported that combinations of new drugs, called protease inhibitors, had allowed many people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, to leave their deathbeds, even to return to work. Even when the drugs offered hope, still other speakers said, it is hope beyond the reach of the vast majority of the 34 million people infected with the AIDS virus. Those patients cannot afford the treatment. It can cost about $15,000 to provide the drugs to one person a year, a sum greater than the entire health budget of many a Third World village

John Barker, a plastic surgeon in charge of the research for the Louisville project, said in an interview that his team had selected several patients from among 100 applicants to undergo a hand transplant later this year. Barker expressed confidence that his team's efforts would succeed, because advances in transplantation have been so dramatic in recent years. But he said the rejection of transplanted skin posed a particular risk to the success of the procedure and had been the limiting factor in earlier attempts and research. Barker, of the Louisville team, said he was surprised to learn about the operation in Lyons. He said his team 'never heard of this group' that performed the procedure. The idea of such a transplant was previously discussed at international scientific meetings, he said, but he does not recall that members of the French group participated

Strawberry is one of an estimated 800 American men in the 35-39 age group who will be found to have colon and rectal cancer this year, according to figures from the American Cancer Society. The figure represents 1.2 percent of the estimated 64,000 American men who will develop colon cancer in 1998. About 77,000 American women of all ages will develop colon and rectal cancer. Doctors and Yankee officials have provided few specific details about Strawberry's case, but the Yankees' team physician, Stuart Hershon, said yesterday that Strawberry's cancer was in a favorable location for removal from his colon. Crucial information will come during the operation when Dr. [George] Todd is expected to remove the cancer and the segment of normal colon to either side of it. As is usual in such operations, Dr. Todd will also feel Strawberry's entire intestines, liver and other tissues for evidence of spread of the cancer. Also, pathologists will look through a microscope at the tissues removed in the operation. They include the cancer, adjacent segment of colon, and lymph nodes

[Darryl] Strawberry is one of an estimated 800 American men in the 35-39 age group who will be diagnosed with colon and rectal cancer this year, according to the American Cancer Society. The figure represents 1.2 percent of the estimated 64,000 American men who will develop colon cancer in 1998. About 77,000 American women of all ages also will develop colon and rectal cancer

The surgical team at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan, headed by Dr. George J. Todd, said it removed a cancerous tumor that measured 2.4 inches in length and that nearly blocked Strawberry's intestine. There was no visible evidence during the operation that the cancer had spread beyond that area of the bowel, the doctors said in a statement issued last night. But it will be about a week before the results of the key pathology tests are available. The findings will determine what anti-cancer therapy, such as drugs and radiation, the doctors will recommend for Strawberry after he recuperates from surgery. He was expected to stay in the hospital for one week. The pathology findings will provide the doctors with information they need to stage, or classify, the severity of Strawberry's cancer and provide a statistical base for a long-term prognosis. Although Strawberry's wife, Charisse, had said the cancer was a favorable stage A or B, cancer experts said in interviews that there was no way to stage the cancer until the final pathology tests were available

A man given another man's transplanted hand and forearm in France is recovering without any signs of graft rejection, his doctors said Monday. Clint Hallam, 48, is doing surprisingly well since his operation last week, said transplant team member Dr. Xavier Martin. Hallam -- a New Zealand man who lives in Perth, Australia -- walked Monday for the first time since Thursday's 13 1/2-hour operation and is eating, Martin said from the Edouard Herriot Hospital in Lyons, where the surgery was performed

The man, Clint Hallam, ''is doing surprising well,'' said Dr. Xavier R. Martin, after he and other members of the transplant team examined the graft. Mr. Hallam walked yesterday for the first time since the 13 1/2-hour operation and is eating, Dr. Martin said in a telephone interview from the Edouard Herriot Hospital in Lyons, where the operation was performed. A physiotherapist performed passive exercises on the grafted hand. Mr. Hallam is not allowed to move the donor hand or fingers by himself because such action could tear any of the hundreds of sutures used to connect the skin, muscles, tendons, nerves and blood vessels before the tissues have time to heal, Dr. Martin said