Suppressive Therapy Significantly Reduces Genital Outbreaks.(Valtrex for genital herpes treatment)

2002 JAN 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- New research suggests that managing recurrent genital herpes with Valtrex caplets for suppressive therapy - treating daily before symptoms ever appear - is significantly more effective at reducing the number of genital herpes recurrences or outbreaks than treating with Valtrex for episodic therapy - treating as outbreaks occur.

Study results from a year long, randomized, open label trial of 80 otherwise healthy adults with a history of four to nine outbreaks of genital herpes per year found that suppressive therapy with 500 mg of Valtrex once-a-day for recurrent genital herpes greatly reduced the number of genital herpes outbreaks by nearly 80% (78.1%) compared with episodic therapy with 500 mg of Valtrex twice a day for five days. The data were presented at the 41st annual meeting of the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), held December 16-19, 2001, in Chicago, Illinois.

The time between outbreaks was substantially different between episodic and suppressive therapy, therefore providing patients on suppressive therapy with significant relief from the disease. The mean number of days between outbreaks was 53 for patients on episodic therapy versus 179.8 for patients on suppressive therapy.

"The findings of this study represent a continued understanding of the different treatment options specifically for patients infected with genital herpes," says lead study author Kenneth H. Fife, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology and pathology at the Indiana University School of Medicine. "Recurrent outbreaks can sometimes affect both a patient's physical and emotional health, making the reduction in frequency of outbreaks important to those patients."

Both episodic and suppressive antiviral therapies treat genital herpes outbreaks by disrupting the process by which the herpes virus reproduces itself and spreads to other cells in the body. There is no cure for genital herpes and no drug has been proven to prevent the spread of herpes to others. Episodic therapy is used to treat recurrent outbreaks of genital herpes at the first sign of symptoms. Suppressive therapy means taking medication daily to help suppress outbreaks before symptoms ever appear.

Valtrex is the only antiviral medication indicated for once daily dosing to suppress recurrent genital herpes outbreaks. In addition, Valtrex is also the only antiviral approved for a three-day course of therapy to treat recurrent ...