Prophylactic treatment with oral antiviral agents appeared to dramatically decrease the recurrence of herpes simplex virus eye disease even while incidence remained stable, according to a long-term study of residents of one Minnesota county. Using the Rochester Epidemiology Project (REP), Mayo Clinic researchers retrieved 694 records that contained diagnostic codes related to herpetic eye disease in residents of Olmsted County, Minn., between 1976 and 2007, Ryan C. Young and his colleagues reported in the Archives of Ophthalmology. They found 394 confirmed cases (181 men, 213 women), with a mean age of onset of 43 years. Mean follow-up was 7.7 years.
