Clinical and virologic efficacy of herpes simplex virus type 2 suppression by acyclovir in a multicontinent clinical trial.

Acyclovir suppressive therapy (400 mg twice daily) reduces herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 2-associated genital ulcer disease and lesional HSV shedding. In an international trial of acyclovir for suppression of HSV type 2 to prevent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) acquisition (HIV Prevention Trials Network 039), acyclovir had a smaller effect on the frequency of genital ulcer disease as well as a smaller effect on the frequency and quantity of lesional HSV DNA in African women and Peruvian men, compared with its effects in men in the United States. The observed regional variation in the clinical and virologic efficacy of acyclovir for HSV suppression warrants further evaluation of determinants of responses to acyclovir. (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00076232.).