Oral acyclovir to suppress recurring herpes simplex virus infections in immunodeficient patients

Thirty-two episodes of herpes simplex virus infection in four immunodeficient patients with frequent recurrences were successfully treated with oral acyclovir, one capsule five times a day for 5 days. In 23 of these episodes, the treatments were extended for 1 to 6 months using two to five capsules a day with the aim of suppressing expected recurrences. In these patients, who routinely had more than one recurrence per month before treatment, there were only six outbreaks during more than 60 patient-months of suppressive therapy. Infection always recurred after treatments were completed, but the time to recurrence was shorter after treatments with two acyclovir capsules per day than after treatments with five capsules per day (p less than 0.001).