Effect of Acyclovir on Infectious Mononucleosis: A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study

Abstract

Thirty-one patients with clinical and laboratory diagnoses of infectious mononucleosis who had had symptoms for seven or fewer days were randomized for intravenous treatment with acyclovir (10 mg/kg) or placebo at 8-hr intervals for seven days in a doubleblind trial. Clinical signs and symptoms were registered, and excretion of virus in the saliva as well as antibody responses in sera and saliva were assessed before, during, and at reguIarintervals in the six months after treatment. Acyclovir significantly (P < .001), but reversibly, inhibited oropharyngeal sheclclingqf Epstein-Barr virus. The humoral and cellular immune responses, however, did not differ between the two groups; nor did the development of viral latency. There were no significant (P >.05) differences in individual clinical symptoms or in laboratory parameters between the two groups; however, when data concerning duration of fever, weight loss, tonsillar swelling, pharyngitis, and self-assessment by the patient were combined, a significant (P ⩽ .01) effect of treatment with acyclovir was evident.