Premium
Oral bromovinyldeoxyuridine therapy for herpes simplex and varicella‐zoster virus infections in severely immunosuppressed patients: A preliminary clinical trial
Author(s) -
Tricot G.,
De Clercq E.,
Boogaerts M. A.,
Verwilghen R. L.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/jmv.1890180103
Subject(s) - mucocutaneous zone , medicine , herpes simplex virus , virology , aciclovir , varicella zoster virus , virus , antiviral drug , herpesviridae , valaciclovir , immunology , foscarnet , viral disease , disease
Twenty‐five patients with haematological diseases were treated orally with the highly potent and selective anti‐herpes agent, bromovinyldeoxyuridine (BVDU), in a dosage of 7.5 mg/kg/day (divided over three or four doses a day) for 5 days for an intercurrent mucocutaneous herpesvirus infection. Of these 25 patients, 8 were severely granulocytopenic at the time of the viral infection, and 12 recently had undergone bone‐marrow transplantation; 5 were under cytotoxic therapy for a lymphoproliferative disorder; 13 had herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV‐1); 1 had herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV‐2); and 11 had varicella‐zoster virus (VZV) infection. In all but two patients, BVDU arrested progression of the HSV or VZV infection within 1–2 days after treatment was started. One of the two patients who failed to respond to BVDU had an HSV‐2 infection. The other had an HSV‐1 infection, which was highly sensitive to BVDU in vitro; BVDU may have failed in this patient because of incomplete drug intake or profuse diarrhoea, or both. The results of this preliminary uncontrolled clinical trial suggest that BVDU may be an effective and safe drug for the oral treatment of HSV‐1 and VZV infections in severely immunosuppressed patients.