Treatment of adenovirus infection of the eye with 5-iodo-2'-deoxyuridine. A double-blind trial.

Epidemic keratoconjunctivitis is usually caused by infection with an adenovirus, generally type 8 (Hanna, Jawetz, Mitsui, Thygeson, Kimura, and Nicholas, I957). As this is a DNA virus it might be expected to respond to treatment with 5-iodo-2'-deoxyuridine (IDU) which acts by interfering with the normal synthesis of DNA, thus preventing replication of DNA-containing viruses (Herrmann, I 96 I; Smith, I963) . It has now been shown that IDU is effective in the treatment of acute infections of the eye due to the DNA virus herpes simplex (Kaufman, I962; Patterson, Fox, Davies, Maguire, Holmes Sellors, Wright, Rice, Cobb, and Jones, I963). The present study was designed to determine whether IDU applied locally in ointment form to the eyes of out-patients was of value in the treatment of epidemic keratoconjunctivitis associated with adenovirus infection.