), and Epidemiology (A.W. The susceptible partner was evaluated monthly for clinical signs and symptoms of genital herpes.
A 500-mg dose of valacyclovir taken once daily reduced the risks of acquisition of symptomatic genital herpes and acquisition of HSV-2 infection overall by susceptible, HSV-2–seronegative heterosexual partners.
24/7 Online support, Absolute an0nymity & Fast delivery. Dr. Mertz reports having received consultation fees from GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly, lecture fees from GlaxoSmithKline, and grant support from 3M.This article is dedicated to the memory of Stephen L. Sacks, M.D., whose research on genital herpes contributed substantially to our findings.We are indebted to the 1498 couples, the investigators, and the study staff for their tremendous contribution to this demanding trial; to Julia Harris and Judith Zeh, statisticians, for their contributions to the analyses and study design, respectively; to Stacy Selke for her role in management of the data; to Zane Brown and Dorothea Griffiths for their work on the End-Points Committee; and to Alison Webster, Robert Deeter, and Karen Coates, all of GlaxoSmithKline, for their assistance.From the Departments of Medicine (L.C., A.W.
Leone, M.J. Levin, T.C. In other words, valacyclovir is effective at reducing the risk of partner-to-partner transmission when it's taken in addition to using barrier methods (such as condoms and dental dams), and when partners abstain from sexual contact if the affected partner is having an active herpes outbreak. Baker, K.R.
To that end, it might be helpful to know that, at this time, valacyclovir is only approved for use in Clinically, valacyclovir has been approved by the U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA) for reducing the risk of transmitting genital herpes to an uninfected partner when used in combination with safer sex behaviors. Koltun, S.J. Varela (Spain); A. Strand (Sweden); N. Atakan and G. Ozarmagan (Turkey); C. Bowman and R. Patel (United Kingdom); and G.M. Holmes, W.D. In one study, taking Acyclovir daily as suppressive therapy was so effective, that the percent of days that patients were shedding the virus was reduced to less than 1%!
Of these 45 documented infections, 14 were acquired by the sexual partners of subjects who were taking valacyclovir, as compared with 31 partners of subjects who were taking placebo (Of the 41 HSV-2 infections, 20 were associated with symptomatic new genital herpes (the primary end point of the study) and 21 with seroconversion only (Among the 741 source partners assigned to take placebo, 573 reported a genital recurrence during the study (77.3 percent), as compared with 288 of the 743 assigned to take valacyclovir (38.8 percent) (P<0.001). ); the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland (J.P.); Dow Pharmaceutical Sciences and Department of Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco (K.R.B.
Dr. Sacks reports having received consultation and lecture fees from GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis and holding equity in Viridae Clinical Sciences. The general consensus among the medical community is that more research is necessary to determine the drug’s effectiveness in preventing transmission among homosexual partners or individuals with compromised immunity (i.e., folks living with diseases like diabetes, HIV, or people undergoing certain treatments for cancer).Maintaining open communication about sexual health is critical to any healthy relationship, and it sounds like you and your partner are already working together to help protect one another.
Whiting, M.L.