Is acyclovir and valacyclovir the same
Common Questions and Answers about Is acyclovir and valacyclovir the same
famvir
There are 3 antiviral meds for herpes:
acyclovir (generic) also known as Zovirax
Valtrex (valacyclovir)
famciclovir (generic) also known as Famvir
Any informed opinions. I know acyclovir is the oldest and I saw some impressive statistics on it's suppression abilities. Obviously the two generic drugs will be much less expensive than Valtrex.
Valtrex is actually converted into acyclovir by the liver, so essentially, the two drugs act the same way in the body to suppress the virus. If acyclovir improves your quality of life, I would stick with it and explain the similarities to your partner - they are well documented and I expect you can find information in scholarly journals that supports the suppressive activity of acyclovir. The benefit of valtrex is that it can be given at a higher dose and only once per day.
Hi All, this is my first post. I had been taking acyclovir successfully for the past six years, for outbreaks about two to three times per year. With all the stress in my life these days, my outbreaks have become much more frequent and for whatever reason, I am now having some unpleasant side effects from acyclovir, like headache (tolerable), weird taste in my mouth and excess salivation, and a heavy feeling in my legs and arms.
Long-term use of acyclovir for up to 10 years for HSV suppression is effective and well tolerated. Acyclovir is also approved for use in children, is available in some countries over the counter in cream formulation for herpes labialis, and has been monitored in over 1000 pregnancies. Safety monitoring data from clinical trials of valacyclovir, involving over 3000 immunocompetent and immunocompromised persons receiving long-term therapy for HSV suppression, were analyzed.
even though i have read that these drugs are not effective
Hello,
To prevent frequent recurrence of genital warts, one can take medicines like Acyclovir, famciclovir, and valacyclovir. This is known as suppressive therapy and is very much effective in preventing recurrences. My advice is to consult a dermatologist and get it prescribed.
I hope it helps. Take care and please do keep us posted on how you are doing or if you have any additional doubts. Kind regards.
2) Inform each and every parnter of your HSV2 infection; and 3) always use condoms, unless your partner is willing to take the chance of not doing so.
Although your apparently doesn't know herpes or its management very well, this doesn't necessarily mean she otherwise "sucks" as a caring and effective doctor. It's pretty common for otherwise great docs to not understand the complexities of genital herpes and other HSV infection.
Speak with your doctor about increasing the dose or perhaps switching to valacyclovir, which gives higher blood levels and sometimes is more effective than acyclovir.
yes and no. Valtrex is an acyclovir prodrug. what that means if you swallow valtrex and your body changes it into acyclovir inside your body. Because of that unique delivery method, you get more active acyclovir available to fight the herpes virus when it's active so you take it less often. The main difference in the two of them is convenience and of course price.
It has significantly helped lessen the amount of outbreaks as well as the duration if I do get one. I had to recently switch doctors and this new doctor is not willing to prescribe it to me anymore stating that the FDA has linked Acyclovir to causing cancer after 1 year of use. I can't find anything on FDA website or Google linking long term effects causing cancer. I don't know why a doctor would say this to a patient if there weren't any solid facts??
actually the answer is more accurately - sometimes it can.
if you started suppressive therapy soon after being infected, it can delay seroconversion. you started it a few months into things so it wouldn't have affected your test results.
at this point you have several posts going on. we can help you best if you just keep it all in 1 post - thanks!
My dr changed my 2x daily 400mg acyclovir to 1 500mg of valacyclovir a month ago and it hasn’t made a difference. The worst part of all this is that I haven’t told my husband (we married last year). We have children and I’m so scared this is going to end my marriage. I never had outbreaks on the meds and never knew how to bring it up and now I’m suicidal over it. I’m a horrible person and just don’t know what to do.
If both the infected and uninfected members of a couple consistently take any of the anti-HSV drugs (acyclovir, valacyclovir, famciclovir), I cannot imagine transmission taking place.
You are wrong about suppressive therapy and blood test results. If someone catches HSV-2, the blood test becomes positive. If it remains negative, no infection occurred.
For suppressive therapy to prevent transmission, I normally rely on valacylcovir 1.0 g once daily.
I was told I had genital herpes 3 days ago. The outbreak started about 6 days ago. This is the first outbreak and it's extremely painful. The Dr gave me Acyclovir to take for 7 days. How long will it take for it to stop hurting? How long will it take for the Acyclovir to work?
The usual dose for suppressive treatment in people with infrequent outbreaks is 500 mg once daily, but the 1 gram (1000 mg) tablet is not double the price -- so you can save still more by asking for the 1 g tablets and breaking them in half. (This is good advice for many expensive drugs. In general, double or quadruple pill dose does not double or quadruple the prince. However, if your health insurance has good drug coverage, it may not be worth the trouble.
Does it happen every time you take valacyclovir and stay there. If the rash is due to VCV, it should not come and go as long as you are taking the drug?
Drug allergies may be either specific to the drug being taken or it may occur within a class of drugs. Thus, if this is a valacyclovir reaction, you might not react to famciclovir (you would however be likely to react to acyclovir since VCV turns into acyclovir within the body).
Finally, you state you cannot live without VCV. Why is this?
That difference was not statistically significant and there is no suggestion even for routine liver tests in people taking the drug. Here is a link to the official prescribing information about the drug, as approved by the US Food and Drug Administration: http://us.gsk.com/products/assets/us_valtrex.pdf
Also, your doctor is mistaken about "all antivirals" causing liver damage. It simply is not true.
When I returned home, the paranoid bug took hold and I went to the doc and asked for acyclovir, which she gave me. At the time, I had no symptoms.
Two days later, I started getting UTI-type symptoms (irritated urethra, increased urge to pee, etc.). After two days of that, I went to the doctor again, who said it was possible that since she is likely a carrier, I may have contracted it and the pills meant I only got the urethritis, but no lesions.
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