[Modified therapy of herpetic infection]

The study demonstrates a higher pharmacotherapeutic and economic efficacy of an alternative treatment modality for genital herpes using cycloferon, an inducer of endogenous interferons, compared with acyclovir. Clinical remission due to suppression of virus replication occurred in 72.3 and 73.5% of the cases within 6 months after the treatment with cycloferon and cycloferon + acyclovir respectively. Acyclovir alone prevented reactivation of the disease only in 128% of the patients. The cost/effectiveness ratio in patients given combined therapy was 27.95 compared with 12.9 in case of monotherapy with acyclovir which suggests economic feasibility of the use of cycloferon as the drug of choice for the management of genital herpes. The efficacy of therapy was identical in patients with and without deletion of the GSTM1 gene encoding glutathione-S-transferase which suggests the possibility to effectively use cycloferon in genetically heterogeneous patients.