Which antivirals worked best for you?

[redo]

Hi,

I am sort of new to this topic, and I would love to hear which antivirals/herbs with antiviral effects have worked best for you.

Please select the one which fits you in the poll, and please describe your experiences in this thread.

NB! You need a doctor who has experience and knows what tests are needed and which the possible side effects. You need a doctor to diagnose which infection is relevant for you (if any of those).

The reason for this poll is simply to gauge how people who have been diagnosed with relevant viral infections have improved in their CFS symptoms after getting treated

 

[heapsreal]

what about famvir

 

[leaves]

Owww forgot about that.. And imunovir too, and the interferrons... Sigh gotta work with what we got now..

 

[heapsreal]

Also cycloferon if your going to put in immune modulators like immunovir, cycloferon works in a similar way to immunovir.

cheers!!!

 

[redo]

Are there any others which also should be included (please mention them now . Guess we can delete this and make a new thread, this has only been out for less than a day.

 

[CBS]

I'm pretty sure that the infectious disease doctors who typically Rx antivirals would find this poll troublesome as the results from testing for different types of viruses has everything to do with the type of antivirals they prescribe. I know that not everyone has access to a doctor who knows what they are doing with these tests but I'd urge caution on this topic as there are serious complications with many, if not all, anti-virals (eg. valcyte has been shown to cause cancer in lab mice). You need a doctor who has experience and knows what tests are needed and which the possible side effects.

 

[leaves]

Awww CBS you are right... But can we pleeeeaaaase ?? Were just playing.
redo: poor thing: what have you gitten yourself into.. You just wanted some info on antivirale and then i came with this awful poll idea and hell broke loose. Please ignore me! Im trouble ..

 

[CBS]

Awww CBS you are right... But can we pleeeeaaaase ?? Were just playing.
@redo: poor thing: what have you gitten yourself into.. You just wanted some info on antivirale and then i came with this awful poll idea and hell broke loose. Please ignore me! Im trouble ..

Sorry to be a buzz kill. The infectious disease docs would probably also argue that for CFS, the doses have to be titrated at very specific levels reached over a period of months and that benefits might not be evident for even longer periods. Lastly, with CFS, say you have a number of co-infections. Treating one viral infection might only be treating a portion of your issues while others may actually be getting worse (for reasons unrelated to the anti-viral) so careful symptom tracking is essential.

 

[heapsreal]

ok, basically valtrex is for ebv,
valcyte is for hhv6 but also works against cmv and ebv,
Famvir is debatable as some people on the board have found it has lowered their viral load to hhv6 and for me cmv. Someone mentioned that the makers of famvir know its active against more viruses but it was easier to market it for genital herpes and shingles.
My opinion is to try famvir first as its potentially effective against most of the herpes viruses and is alot less toxic and alot cheaper then valcyte. Valcyte maybe stronger then famvir but it is rediculously expensive, in australia it would cost me 10-15K for 3 months and its all out of pocket unless you have HIV or an organ transplant recipient and have a cmv eye infection.

Now treating these infections can make u feel better but i believe that these infections are co-infections and that there is some kind of underlying immune dysfunction, possibly a retrovirus. Just like HIV, cfs people tend to get alot of different bugs reactivating etc because HIV causes an immune dysfunction. Dont get me wrong, go for it if u have one or more of the herpes viruses reactivating and u will probably improve but as for a total cure, not quite, and its probably a treatment u will have to stay on forever to keep feeling better as antivirals dont kill viruses they just stop them replicating and having little baby herpes viruses, so to speak and this can help lower your viral load and free up your immune system to a certain degree.

cheers!!!

 

[leaves]

CBS They probably would.. Therefore you must be relieved to know that noone is advocating making a treatment decision based upon this poll
Polls are just a nice way for us to participate and interact, I seriously doubt anyone will use this poll for more than that. Were not (that) stupid.

 

[leaves]

I've got aquestion: I've got active infections of hhv6, cytomegela and ebv HOWEVER viral serum titers aren't that high (not high enough for taking visticide based on that)
My cytokine profile and symptoms show I've got some serious neuro infection going on. I know Peterson did some csf tests and found that people with low titers still had big infections going on on csf.
Should i discuss visticide with my doc? Besides Viral i cant think of a likely candidate (fungal/bacterial) of the infection. Do some people here try visticide even without very high viral titers?

 

[leaves]

Hey heaps, that's interesting ! Talk to me about famvir: does it target ebv, hhv6 and cyto? That's pretty awesome. Does it cross bbb??

 

[heapsreal]

they say that somtimes herpes viruses just sit in the nervous system and arent high in the blood, so maybe worth trying an av for a few months to see how u feel from it.

cheers!!!
ps trying to private chat with u too.

 

[leaves]

Hey heaps, I'm on my iPhone so chat doesn't work that great
I know that visticide valcyte and foscavir are best for hhv 6 do you know the effectivityagainst the other viruses? Do they cross bbb? How is toxicity?

 

[heapsreal]

Im not sure about the BBB but most of the herpes drugs have an effect on all the herpes viruses to a greater or lesser degree ie some more then others, but the stronger av's like visticide i think are iv, so sometimes they may start u on an iv drug and change you to an oral drug like valtrex or famvir to keep the virus supressed

 

[heapsreal]

also not sure if valcyte is that great against ebv as some people here have needed valtrex with valcyte to get ebv down, these are people who tested positive to hhv6 and ebv.

 

[SOC]

also not sure if valcyte is that great against ebv as some people here have needed valtrex with valcyte to get ebv down, these are people who tested positive to hhv6 and ebv.

I've heard the same. My uncle had to take both, I believe.

 

[SOC]

Hey heaps, I'm on my iPhone so chat doesn't work that great
I know that visticide valcyte and foscavir are best for hhv 6 do you know the effectivityagainst the other viruses? Do they cross bbb? How is toxicity?

I believe I was told (sorry, no better reference) that Valcyte does cross bbb to some extent. From my own experience, it has given me a huge improvement in my cognitive function in the year I've been taking it. That could, of course, be attributable to other things such as improved blood flow to brain, etc. Who knows?

 

[Cloud]

Vistide is indicated for CMV. I cleared high viral load CMV after 6 months tx with Vistide alone, and remain undetectable now 1 year post tx. It does cross the bbb. Vistide is secreted unchanged through the kidneys and therefore is little threat for hepatic toxicity....but it can cause serious kidney problems (amongst other potentially serious side effects). I had no problems with the drug. Never taken Valcyte, but then I am HHV6 neg. Valtrex seemed like kool-aid, but EBV is not always active.

 

[maryb]

Leaves aside from the viral infections have you been tested for anoerobic bacterial infections, this is the route KdM goes down first, pulsing specific a/biotics.