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Herpes Treatment Questions (which drugs, dosage?)


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Hey everyone,

As mentioned in my other discussion I currently don't have access to great doctors that understand herpes well. After about 15 hours of herpes research I'm a bit confused and exhausted, so pardon me if these questions have been answered on this forum before.

 

1. Treating herpes during an outbreak

 

Initially when my herpes was diagnosed as a skin infection, I was prescribed oral broad spectrum antibiotics and antibacterial/antibiotic cream.

 

Once the doctors realized that I actually might herpes, they added in Acyclovir which I have been applying to affected areas twice a day (things have gotten a lot better)

 

My questions:

1.1. For how many days should I apply Acyclovir cream? Until symptoms disappear or only for a limited amount of time?

1.2. Going forward, if I have another outbreak, should I again use Acyclovir cream or look into oral medication (or even a combination of cream+oral medication)?

 

Or "which drugs do you take if you have a herpes outbreak?".

 

 

2. Taking ongoing herpes medication

I might go down that route in order to protect my girlfriend.

 

2.1. Which drugs should I take?

From the research I did, acyclovir and valicyclovir both help best to reduce viral shedding.

Source:

 

It seems that you have to take acyclovir at least 2x day and valicyclovir once a day. Is therefore valicyclovir the best solution.

 

Or: "which drugs to you take as ongoing medication and in which dosage?".

 

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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There are various demographics that can affect dosage, but my Dr put me on Valtrex - 1,000mg 2x a day for 10 days during my first o/b symptoms. I chose not to stay on it prophylactically, but she told me that her recommendation is at least that dose during o/b symptoms, then if o/b s drop below a certain number per year, the dose would be cut in half and could either be take just once a day or twice a day.

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Hi AgentG!

 

Welcome to the forums! :)

 

Small print: We aren't doctors, nor do we play doctors on TV, so we can't directly offer you dosing/medication advice. Your doctor is the best source of info for any of that.

 

That said, I've taken Acyclovir 400mg twice daily to suppress herpes when I've been in relationships where they did not have herpes to keep them safe. If I'm single, then I only will take doses when I feel my prodrome symptoms coming up and if an outbreak is beginning (episodic treatment). The only perk I know of taking Valtrex instead of the others is that you only have to take it once a day instead of twice since it's time-released.

 

Creams have never worked for me. I think they would probably lessen the severity of a herpes outbreak if you started applying the cream precisely as the outbreak is beginning, but after it's already in full bloom, the creams haven't worked for me at all, so I stopped using them altogether.

 

Speaking of keeping your girlfriend safe, have you read these handouts to get all the info on that?

http://bit.ly/h-opp-diagnosis-handout

http://bit.ly/h-opp-disclosure-handout

 

... and here are blog posts with all the in-depth information on herpes medication and herpes treatment:

http://herpeslife.com/herpes-treatment/

http://herpeslife.com/herpes-medication/

This content is for informational purposes only. This information does not constitute medical advice or diagnosis. I'm not a medical professional, so please take this as friendly peer support. 

Helpful resources:

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Ask your doctor for specifics, but as far as I know the dosage that you're referring to, Aerial is for first outbreaks since they tend to be most severe. The dosage I was referring to is for suppressive therapy for the long term to keep future partners safer and/or to lessen frequency and severity of outbreaks.

This content is for informational purposes only. This information does not constitute medical advice or diagnosis. I'm not a medical professional, so please take this as friendly peer support. 

Helpful resources:

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Aerial & Adrial,

Thanks so much for the information. Yep, I've already had a look at the handouts. Super useful, thanks for putting them together.

 

Suppressive therapy:

Seems like 2x 400mg of Acyclovir per day will be the best choice then. I don't like the idea of taking pills on a daily basis, but it makes sense to protect my gf.

 

Additional questions:

(I fully understand that I should also discuss this with a capable doctor.)

 

1. If you have an outbreak while on suppressive therapy, do you take additional medicine and/or increase the dose?

2. If I were to use Acyclovir for episodic therapy, would I take 4x400mg per day for 10 days (twice the amount that @Aerial2013 mentioned since it's Acyclovir instead of Valtrex)?

3. Does dosage or type of medicine taken vary based on type 1 / 2, body weight, etc?

4. Could I become resistant to anti-herpes drugs by taking wrong doses?

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As Adrial said, we are not Doctors and those are really the kind of thing that a doctor should answer - I would try to see if you can find a capable doctor over there to answer those questions.

 

If that doesn't work, can you find a friend over here to set up a Skype appointment with an OBGYN (You'd have to figure out a payment system but it can be done) ... that might be a reasonable solution for you to get the answers you need...

 

@Adrial - could Dr Leone do a Skype appointment with him???

 

Hope that helps...

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