Clinical evaluation of the effect of oral aciclovir on herpetic gingivostomatitis

Abstract

To investigate the efficacy of aciclovir for herpetic gingivostomatitis, changes in local lesions and fluctuations in local virus titer were compared between a treated group of patients given oral aciclovir (4 patients, 7 sites, 36 specimens) and a control group of patients not given aciclovir (3 patients, 5 sites, 15 specimens). Specimens were able to be taken from the same site for several days in succession in all patients. The results demonstrated improvement in clinical symptoms in the treated group from day 2 of treatment. Likewise, a tendency towards cure of local symptoms was noted remarkably earlier in the treated group than in the control group. In addition, assessment of the virus titer of specimens taken daily from the same site revealed that the virus was not isolated from local specimens as early as after 1 day of treatment up to 3 days of treatment in the oral aciclovir group. The results indicated that oral aciclovir is therapeutically effective for herpes simplex virus and that the drug should be administered for at least 3 days.