A new study shows that taking antiviral drugs can save the sight of people who are affected by shingles.
Around one in five of people who get the viral disease shingles - usually preceded many years earlier by chicken pox - have the infection spread to the eye. This raises the problem of long-term complications such as eyelid scarring, ingrowing eyelashes and even blindness.

Doctors at the Mayo Clinic have shown that giving antiviral drugs can reduce the risk of complications among those with eye shingles. Two thirds of a group of 323 patients were treated with an antiviral drug, while the others were not treated. Five to ten years on, 8.9 per cent in the untreated group had complications of eye shingles compared to 2.1 per cent in the treated group. This is in contrast to previous research which suggested that antiviral drugs don't have any effect on eye shingles.

Timing of the treatment is important too, according to the current study. Those experiencing long-term complications despite antiviral therapy had not started therapy until a day or so later than those who avoided complications.