title: Efficacy of oral treatment with acyclovir and co-trimoxazole in first episode genital herpes.
abstract: Forty patients presenting with first episode genital herpes were randomly allocated to seven day treatment with oral acyclovir alone, placebo alone, oral acyclovir plus co-trimoxazole, or placebo plus co-trimoxazole. Patients receiving acyclovir had significantly shorter periods of viral shedding (p less than 0.001), pain (p = 0.03), and times to lesion healing (p less than 0.05). Averaged over all patients there was no evidence that co-trimoxazole affected any of the variables, though in women cotrimoxazole was associated with a shorter time to lesion healing (p less than 0.01). Furthermore, the combination treatment gave significantly shorter times to lesion healing than acyclovir alone, placebo alone, or placebo and co-trimoxazole (p = 0.01) and good trends elsewhere (external lesions and duration of pain). Neither drug was associated with any adverse events or toxicity or influenced the subsequent recurrence rate.
mesh_terms: D000212:Acyclovir / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004338:Drug Combinations / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D005260:Female; D006558:Herpes Genitalis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011897:Random Allocation; D013420:Sulfamethoxazole / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D014295:Trimethoprim / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015662:Trimethoprim, Sulfamethoxazole Drug Combination
chemical_list: D004338:Drug Combinations; D015662:Trimethoprim, Sulfamethoxazole Drug Combination; D014295:Trimethoprim; D013420:Sulfamethoxazole; D000212:Acyclovir