Recent advances in antiviral therapy.

It has been demonstrated in clinical trials that (1) the antimetabolites Ara A and F3T are both significantly better than IDU in the treatment of many forms of ocular herpes, and (2) they are not significantly different from each other. In preclinical trials, the IDU ocular insert also has shown itself to be significantly better than IDU drop-ointment therapy, while exposing the eye to 40 percent less drug and adding tremendous convenience and ease of compliance by patients to an otherwise difficult medication schedule. Both photodynamic inactivation and cryotherapy have been shown in clinical trials to have notable therapeutic efficacy against herpes, but undesirable and occasionally severe side-effects have slowed down and possibly stopped the further development of these techniques.