How much acyclovir

[dmbaken]

Hi,

My daughters GP is willing to prescribe her acyclovir long term. At this stage he has prescribed 400mg twice a day (total of 800mg a day) becasue this is what he is used to for other herpes conditions. However I doubt this is the therapeutic dose for ME. I think he would willing to prescribe more if we had some advice (preferrably a from a journal). Can anybody give me any advice on this?

Thanks

Don

 

[Uno]

Acyclovir is useless against infections like HHV6 - however if she has had shingles then it may be beneficial. I was on it for a month and saw no improvement whatsoever...am gunning for Valcyte instead.

 

[dmbaken]

Thanks Uno for your reply,

My daughter was prescribed IV acyclovir for 3.5 days about a year and a half ago for another infection and her ME symptoms also improved over the next couple of weeks. Things then stayed pretty stable for 6 months and then have been declining. So we know that acyclovir is useful for her. We won't get the IV version again but can get the pill version and the GP is willing to consider it long term. At the moment he has only prescribed 400mg x2/day which I doubt is strong enough. The GP might be convinced into a stronger dose if I can give some reasoning. I am surprised I have not got more responses to this question given all the knowledge on this site.

Thanks again.

Don

 

[heapsreal]

Thanks Uno for your reply,

My daughter was prescribed IV acyclovir for 3.5 days about a year and a half ago for another infection and her ME symptoms also improved over the next couple of weeks. Things then stayed pretty stable for 6 months and then have been declining. So we know that acyclovir is useful for her. We won't get the IV version again but can get the pill version and the GP is willing to consider it long term. At the moment he has only prescribed 400mg x2/day which I doubt is strong enough. The GP might be convinced into a stronger dose if I can give some reasoning. I am surprised I have not got more responses to this question given all the knowledge on this site.

Thanks again.

Don

I would consider valtrex(500mg-1000mg twice a day, some studies use 1000mg 4 times a day) which is basically acyclovir but is able to reach higher levels in the blood then taking straight acyclovir orally unless given IV. Its worth testing for different viruses like ebv, cmv and hhv6. It promising that your daughter responded to acyclovir and i think worth persuing, maybe not a cure but definately something that could improve function and symptoms, maybe a cure if she only has ebv and remains on valtrex?? valtrex/acyclovir is said to be effective against ebv and valcyte for cmv/hhv6, the antiviral famvir is somewhere in between maybe alittle stronger then valtrex for ebv but not quite as strong for cmv/hhv6 as valcyte, but also less toxic.

Definatelt encourage you to look further into it as her previous responds sounds like she will be a responder. heres some links of interest for you to read https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1QEmWar_CwKfWaHhpzamSWgEAjd2S44CTUTiJk9QIeY0
http://www.treatmentcenterforcfs.com/cfs_publications/index.html

interested to see how things pan out,
cheers!!!

 

[Jenny]

Hi Don

Sorry you've not had many replies to your question. It may be because there are already dozens of threads on acyclovir and other anti-virals. Just do a search, but one example is:

http://forums.phoenixrising.me/showthread.php?1759-Acyclovir&highlight=acyclovir

Jenny

 

[dmbaken]

Hi,

Thanks Heapsreal for your thoughts. We can't afford valtrex so are trying to do it with acyclivir (its subsidised in NZ). I've read the articles where the dose of valtrex is described but am wondering what the equivalent dose of acyclivir is.

Thanks Jenny for the link. I have actually read that link and others. The links have people discussing what dose they are taking but I want to know what dose is used in any articles that have been published or what the equivalent dose is for the valtrex used. Maybe I'm asking for what is not there.

Thanks again

Don