BABA, M., KONNO, K., SHIGETA, S. and DE CLERCQ E. Inhibitory Effects of Selected Antiviral Compounds on Newly Isolated Clinical Varicella-Zoster Virus Strains. Tohoku J. exp. Med., 1986, 148 (3), 275-283 - Nine anti-herpes compounds, idoxuridine (IDU), bromovinyldeoxyuridine (BVDU), bromovinylarabinofuranosylurasil (BVaraU), carbocyclic bromovinyldeoxyuridine (C-BVDU), chloroethyldeoxyuridine (CEDU), acyclovir (ACV), dihydroxypropoxymethyl-guanine (DHPG), adenine arabinoside (Ara-A), and phosphonoformate (PFA) were examined for their inhibitory activities against the replication of twenty-six newly isolated clinical strains of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) in human embryonic fibroblast cell cultures. The order of (decreasing) efficacy was: BVaraU>BVDU ≥C-BVDU>CEDU≥IDU>ACV>Ara-A>DHPG>PFA. There was little variation in the susceptibility of the 26 VZV strains to each particular compound, except for one strain which was resistant to IDU.