Die herpes die!

There's a new non-prescription drug on the market called Abreva which is supposed to heal cold sores. Two-gram tube with 10% active ingredient goes for about $15, which sounds ex for such a tiny amount, but when you consider that Zovirax needs a prescription to get an equally teeny-weeny tube for $60, boleh tahan.

I looked up the active ingredient (docosanol, a long-chain alcohol) on PubMed before buying this since I didn't want to spend that much money on nonsense. Some studies said it's somewhat effective against herpes simplex labialis - a.k.a. cold sores, others said there was no effect (when tested on guinea pigs, not humans). It's thought to interfere with viral fusion and entry by messing around with cell membranes. Review of cell membranes for you non-biologists: they're basically made of long carbon chains, i.e. fatty stuff.

(search string "docosanol acyclovir herpes" if you want to see for yourself. oh, and PubMed can create RSS feeds of searches for now. pretty cool.)

One paper says it has a synergistic effect with acyclovir, which is a prescription ointment known as Zovirax and incredibly expensive. It's a nucleoside analogue that prevents the virus from replicating properly. Double whammy - die herpes die!!!

Anyway, the sore on my nose is almost gone. It showed up on Wednesday, I started putting Abreva AND Zovirax on on Thursday. It never got to that nasty crusty painful stage, just some small vesicles and a bit of redness and soreness. So, the 2-drug treatment is much better in terms of healing time than using Zovirax alone, which I was doing up till now. My cold sores usually took about a week and a half at least to go away. Not bad, hor.

When I run out of Zovirax then I'll try the docosanol alone...oh well. My cousin Nahum in England gets Zovirax free 'cos he's under 18, so my aunty usually passes on the extra tubes to my mum.

Hehe. What's really funny is that acyclovir is also used for genital herpes, so the little tube came with cautions to the effect that it might cause a burning sensation in the genitals. I got it my freshman year of college because all the stress and unaccustomed-to cold weather was getting to me and my left nostril looked like a small red fungus.