Virology: An Exception Extended

In their long, frustrating search for drugs that can knock out viruses, medical researchers have almost always been stumped by one basic problem: any virus-killing chemical must penetrate the body's own cells, and it usually destroys those cells along with the virus particles lurking in them. When the first effective use of a drug against a viral disease was reported last winter (TIME, Feb. 16), it seemed like the exception that proves the rule. Idoxuridine. or IDU, was successfully used for ulcers of the cornea and nearby parts of the eye that have little or no blood supply and...

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