NYU Langone’s Zoster Eye Disease Study (ZEDS) is a multicenter randomized clinical trial that investigates whether long-term, low-dose antiviral treatment is effective in delaying new or worsening eye disease, lessening chronic pain, or both, in people with a form of shingles that affects the eye, called herpes zoster ophthalmicus (HZO). Shingles, also called herpes zoster, is caused by localized reactivation of the virus that causes chickenpox, known as the varicella-zoster virus.

The purpose of our study is to find out whether one year of a low dose of the oral antiviral medicine valacyclovir reduces complications of HZO. People who have had certain types of eye disease due to the shingles virus may be eligible to participate. These include the following conditions:

• infection on the surface of the cornea, the front of the eye
• inflammation or swelling, or both, of the cornea
• inflammation inside the front of the eye, called iritis

We are currently the only large sponsored multicenter clinical trial investigating shingles of the eye. Our study is funded by the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NEI/NIH; grant U10 EY026869) and registered at clinicaltrials.gov NCT0313419.

Contact Us

To contact the ZEDS Coordinating Center, please call 1-844-698-ZEDS (1-844-698-9337) or email us at zeds.cramonitor@nyulangone.org. Learn more about our leadership and participating clinical centers.