CHICAGO, Aug 10 (AFP) - Scientists have seen a sharp drop in AIDS cases among newborns, now that the drug AZT is routinely administered to many pregnant women infected with the virus that causes the deadly disease, according to a study appearing this week.

The report in Wednesday's the Journal of the American Medical Association found that cases of perinatal AIDS peaked in 1992, and had declined by 67 percent by 1997, including an 80 percent decline in infants and a 66 percent decline in children aged one to 5 years.

The study followed pregnant women who tested positive for HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and was compiled by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta.

The authors concluded that aggressive measures will be needed to continue the decline in AIDS and HIV among infants, including "prenatal care, HIV counseling and testing, therapy to reduce perinatal transmission, avoidance of breastfeeding and appropriate treatment and services for mothers," wrote the CDC's Mary Lou Lindegren.

The subjects in the study received AZT from the 28th week of pregnancy to one week prior to birth. Their newborns were then administered the drug for another six weeks after birth.

An editorial accompanying the report stressed that the advances bring hope that AIDS among infants can be wiped out, but those gains have only been visible in the developed world far.

"These advances have had little impact on perinatal infection in the developing world," read the editorial by Lynne Mofenson of the National Institutes of Health, in Rockville, Maryland.

Mofenson wrote than eradicating perinatal AIDS "requires a global collaborative effort and political commitment to extend the benefits that now exist in developed countries to the developing world."

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