TREATMENT OF EXPERIMENTAL HERPES SIMPLEX KERATITIS IN THE RABBIT

Abstract

SPURRED on by the phenomenal success of the antibiotics in controlling most bacterial infections, investigators are vigorously pursuing the quest for similar effective control of virus diseases. Despite many favorable initial and isolated reports, no consistently corroborated satisfactory treatment for virus infections is at hand. The herpes simplex virus is one of the commonest viruses encountered in ocular infections. It produces an easily recognizable clinical entity, oftenest in the form of a dendritic corneal ulcer. It is considered a typical virus and can be grown rather readily in mouse brain or on the chorioallantoic membrane of the chick egg. Transfer to the scarified rabbit cornea, with the production of typical dendritic ulcers, is easily effected for diagnosis or experimental evaluation. It is, consequently, not too surprising that this virus has been singled out for intensive investigation. Prior to the advent of modern chemotherapy probably the most widely used method of