Controlled trials of acyclovir cream were conducted in the treatment of initial and recurrent genital herpes. For 54 patients with the first episode of genital infection (initial disease) treated with acyclovir the duration of viral shedding, formation of new lesions, times to crusting and healing and duration of symptoms were significantly reduced compared with the results obtained in 47 placebo recipients. When applied early in the course of recurrent episodes in 44 patients, acyclovir cream significantly reduced viral shedding, a new lesion formation, time to healing and the duration of symptoms compared with the effects in 41 control patients. Topical therapy with acyclovir cream is well tolerated and compares quite favourably with systemic treatment, especially for recurrent genital herpes.
Non-specific urethritis is without doubt the commonest form of urethritis in men. The These patients were examined again the following morning having held their urine overnight. The urethral meatus and fossa navicularis were cleaned with normal saline, and the urethra was then massaged from the bulb distally. A smear was made of any urethral material so obtained and was stained by Gram's method. Only if the smear contained many polymorphonuclear leucocytes in several one-twelfth microscopic fields with no or few organisms was the diagnosis of non-specific urethritis considered. Any epithelial cells present were mostly non-squamous in type, supporting their origin proximal to the fossa navicularis. All except one of the smears considered to be positive contained 50 to 100 polymorphonuclears in several fields; the remaining smear showed about 30 in several fields. Trichomonas vainalis was looked for in moist urethral scrapings in the cases with evidence of urethritis, but was not found in any instance.
ResultsAs judged by the above criteria, eleven of the 88 men (12-5 per cent.) were found to have non-specific urethritis. In four of these eleven the test was repeated within the next few days with similar results. Further details regarding marital status and recent sexual intercourse are given in the Table. Patients with positive findings were aged 18 to 40 years. Seven of those with negative findings had recently had intercourse with prostitutes compared with four of those found positive. The one patient with positive findings who had not had intercourse in the last 3 months did admit to having had it 5
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.