Oral valacyclovir is better absorbed than oral acyclovir, increasing acyclovir bioavailability three-to fivefold. This provides the opportunity to explore whether high systemic acyclovir concentrations are effective in the treatment of cold sores (herpes labialis). Two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies were conducted. Subjects were provided with 2 g of valacyclovir twice daily for 1 day (1-day treatment), 2 g of valacyclovir twice daily for 1 day and then 1 g of valacyclovir twice daily for 1 day (2-day treatment), or a matching placebo and instructed to initiate treatment upon the first symptoms of a cold sore. In study 1, the median duration of the episode (primary endpoint) was reduced by 1.0 day (P ‫؍‬ 0.001) with 1-day treatment and 0.5 days (P ‫؍‬ 0.009) with 2-day treatment compared to placebo. Similarly, the mean duration of the episode was statistically significantly reduced by 1.1 days with 1-day treatment and 0.7 days with 2-day treatment compared to placebo. The proportion of subjects in whom cold sore lesion development was prevented and/or blocked was increased by 6.4% (P ‫؍‬ 0.096) with 1-day treatment and 8.5% (P ‫؍‬ 0.061) with 2-day treatment compared to placebo. The time to lesion healing and time to cessation of pain and/or discomfort were statistically significantly reduced with valacyclovir compared to placebo. In study 2, results similar to those in study 1 were obtained. AEs were similar across treatment groups. These studies provide evidence supporting a simple, 1-day valacyclovir treatment regimen for cold sores that is safe and effective. The 1-day valacyclovir regimen offers patients a unique and convenient dosing alternative compared to available topical therapies.Herpes labialis, or cold sores, are caused by herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and can result in significant irritation, pain, discomfort, and worry (18,25). The infection is most often acquired in childhood, but the incidence increases with age (2, 5, 12, 18). Up to 90% of persons over the age of 50, depending on race, sex, and country, would test seropositive for HSV-1, and an estimated 20 to 40% of adults experience cold sore outbreaks (5,12,18,25).Until now, most treatments have consisted of creams that must be applied to affected areas multiple times a day for several days (6,13,15,19,20,23). There have been two previous clinical trials of oral antiviral therapy for episodic treatment of herpes labialis. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 210 subjects with recurrent cold sores, it appeared that less time was required for the loss of hard crust for subjects taking 200 mg of oral acyclovir 5 times daily for 5 days (14). This difference as well as other measures of clinical healing was not statistically significant. Spruance et al. evaluated a regimen of 400 mg of oral acyclovir 5 times daily for 5 days in comparison with placebo (21). Overall in this study, acyclovir did not affect the duration of the episode, mean maximum lesion size, or the development of lesions, but a subset o...

Racial democracy is maintained in Brazil through both scholarly and popular discourses that consider “interracial” sex as proof of Brazil's lack of a racial problem. In this article, I scrutinize the discourse that asks, “How can we be racist when so many of us are mixed?” I argue that racial discourses are embedded in everyday interactions, but are often codified or masked. “Race” is especially pertinent to sexuality, yet the two have hardly been analyzed together. In fact, it is not the belief in a racial democracy that is at the heart of Brazilian racial hegemony, but rather the belief that Brazil is a color‐blind erotic democracy. Using my ethnographic data, I illustrate that “race” is embodied in everyday valuations of sexual attractiveness that are gendered, racialized, and class‐oriented in ways that commodity black female bodies and white male economic, racial, and class privilege. [Brazil, race, sexuality, poverty]

The pharmacokinetic interaction between atovaquone, a 1,4-hydroxynaphthoquinone, and zidovudine was examined in an open, randomized, three-phase crossover study in 14 patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus. Atovaquone (750 mg every 12 hours) and zidovudine (200 mg every 8 hours) were given orally alone and in combination. Atovaquone significantly increased the area under the zidovudine concentration-time curve (AUC) (1.82 +/- 0.62 micrograms.hr/ml versus 2.39 +/- 0.68 micrograms.hr/ml; p < 0.05) and decreased the oral clearance of zidovudine (2029 +/- 666 ml/min versus 1512 +/- 464 ml/min; p < 0.05). In contrast, atovaquone tended to decrease the AUC of zidovudine-glucuronide (7.31 +/- 1.51 micrograms.hr/ml versus 6.89 +/- 1.42 micrograms.hr/ml; p < 0.1) and significantly decreased the ratio of AUC zidovudine-glucuronide/AUC zidovudine (4.48 +/- 1.94 versus 3.12 +/- 1.1; p < 0.05). The maximum concentration of zidovudine-glucuronide was significantly lowered by atovaquone (5.7 +/- 1.5 versus 4.57 +/- 0.97 micrograms/ml; p < 0.05). Zidovudine had no effect on the pharmacokinetic disposition of atovaquone. Atovaquone appears to increase the AUC of zidovudine by inhibiting the glucuronidation of zidovudine.

Teenage schoolgirls in Le Roy, New York, captured the attention of the U.S. public in 2011 and 2012 when they developed acute motor and vocal tics. Dramatic images of the girls’ involuntary movements were briefly seen on national news and social media before clinical neurologists diagnosed the girls with “mass psychogenic illness” and required their retreat from media as part of the cure. Drawing from perspectives in medical and linguistic anthropology as well as the anthropology of expertise, we interrogate how this diagnosis, called “mass hysteria” in a previous generation of Freudian psychology, came to be favored over attribution to a potential environmental cause. Neurologists countered the evidential vagueness of environmental claims by suggesting that material proof of psychological origin could lie in fMRI data, contributing to a public narrative on female adolescent brains and rural U.S. communities that foreclosed environmental inquiry.

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Commentators from a broad range of perspectives have been at pains to explain Donald Trump's transition from billionaire businessman to populist presidential candidate. This article draws on cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and rhetorical theory to argue that the success of Trump's candidacy in the 2016 Republican primary was in part due to its value as comedic entertainment. We examine the ways that Trump's unconventional political style, particularly his use of gesture to critique the political system and caricature his opponents, brought momentum to his campaign by creating spectacle. Post-structuralist and neo-Marxist scholars have asserted that late capitalism values style over content: Trump took this characteristic to new heights. The exaggerated depictions of the sociopolitical world that Trump crafts with his hands to oppose political correctness and disarm adversaries accrue visual capital in a mediatized twenty-first-century politics that is celebrity driven.

This article builds on interlocutor comments to "The Hands of Donald Trump: Entertainment, Gesture, Spectacle" (Hall, Goldstein, and Ingram 2016), a study published before the 2016 presidential election that analyzes Trump's use of derisive humor in the Republican Party primaries. We move this earlier analysis forward by examining the ways that Trump's semiotic displays on the campaign trail now inform the material policies of the Trump administration. Our response reflects upon two currents that characterize this postelection moment: first, the surreal mix of gendered and racialized nostalgia embedded in Trump's iconography and message, and second, the intensification of white racism as Trump's rhetoric of patriotic nationalism becomes government. Bringing the responses of our esteemed interlocutors into conversation with the philosophical work of Walter Benjamin, Susan Buck-Morss, and Susan Sontag and the historical work of Carol Anderson, we suggest that Trump's spectacle of governing embraces sexual transgression, civil lawlessness, and excessive opulence, all of which encourage a pro-white semiotics and a return to racisms past.

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