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The recommended dosage for suppression therapy for recurrent outbreaks is 1,000 mg of valacyclovir once a day or 400 mg Acyclovir taken twice a day. In addition to preventing outbreaks, these medications greatly reduce the chance of infecting someone while the patient is not having an outbreak. [citation needed]
Furthermore, long-term treatment of genital herpes with valacyclovir daily has shown to decrease the rates of transmission. [25] It is important for patients to continue suppressive therapy in conjunction to consistent condom use and sexual abstinence during recurrent episodes to decrease transmission as well. [20]
Valaciclovir, also spelled valacyclovir, is an antiviral medication used to treat outbreaks of herpes simplex or herpes zoster (shingles). [2] It is also used to prevent cytomegalovirus following a kidney transplant in high risk cases. [ 2 ]
The use of antiviral treatments, such as aciclovir, given from the 36th week of pregnancy, limits HSV recurrence and shedding during childbirth, thereby reducing the need for caesarean section. [16] Aciclovir is the recommended antiviral for herpes suppressive therapy during the last months of pregnancy.
Aciclovir is excreted in breast milk, therefore it is recommended that caution should be used in breast-feeding women. It has been shown in limited test studies that the nursing infant is exposed to approximately 0.3 mg/kg/day following oral administration of aciclovir to the mother.
Brivudine is used for the treatment of herpes zoster in adult patients. It is taken orally once daily, in contrast to aciclovir, valaciclovir and other antivirals. [1] A study has found that it is more effective than aciclovir, but this has been disputed because of a possible conflict of interest on part of the study authors.
Prescribed daily dose (PDD) is the usual dose of medication calculated by looking at a group of prescriptions for the medication in question. [1] At times the PDD needs to be related to the condition being treated .
There is a consensus among experts that, once initiated, antiretroviral therapy should never be stopped. This is because the selection pressure of incomplete suppression of viral replication in the presence of drug therapy causes the more drug sensitive strains to be selectively inhibited. This allows the drug resistant strains to become dominant.