In recent years, I’ve noticed something interesting. If I had a bad night’s sleep, a particularly stressful day, or some other event that had triggered outbreaks in the past, I would occasionally take a single 400 mg or 800 mg dose of aciclovir. More often than not, the outbreak never seemed to develop.
This was purely my own observation, and I was careful not to assume it proved anything. However, it made me wonder whether taking a single preventive dose of aciclovir immediately after a recognised trigger might be enough to interrupt viral replication before symptoms became established.
I couldn’t find this approach described in clinical guidelines or the medical literature, so I contacted retired sexual health specialist, professor Colm O’Mahony to ask whether the idea made pharmacological sense.
His reply was encouraging:
“Unlike antibiotics, you can pop antivirals intermittently without running any risk of developing resistance, so there’s no harm or downside to it. I have never seen anything written about this anywhere, but it does have scientific plausibility.”
Although this approach has not been formally studied or included in clinical guidelines, it could be a viable strategy for people who know their own triggers and only experience occasional recurrences.
Further research would be needed before it could become an evidence-based recommendation, but we figured the concept was worth sharing.
