Elisabeth J. Cohen, MD, suffered from herpes zoster ophthalmicus (HZO), or shingles of the eye, in 2008. She ended up with some blurring of her sight, but the NYU Langone ophthalmologist considers herself fortunate that it wasn’t much worse. That’s why she’s focused her research on HZO ever since. 

Recently, Dr. Cohen and her team were awarded a $15 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to lead a national multisite study testing whether a low dose of suppressive antivirals used long-term can have the same effect on chronic shingles of the eye as it does on other forms of herpes.

“Our primary purpose is to reduce the eye disease. But our secondary aim is to see if this treatment reduces the frequency and severity of that long lasting pain that goes on more than three months and sometimes for the rest of people’s lives,” Dr. Cohen tells NY1 News.

Watch more on NY1 News.