Topical Zinc Sulfate Therapy in Herpes Simplex

Park, Seong Min; Moon, Doo Chan; Kwon, Kyung Sool; Chung, Tae Ahn

Abstract

Zinc sulfate, which was used as zinc sulfate ophthalmic solution in herpetic keratitis, has been found to have the therapeutic effects in cutaneous and mucosal herpes simplex. We studied ta evaluate the therapeutic effect of zinc sulfate in patients with herpes simplex. Nine patients with primary herpes simplex and twenty five patient with recurrent herpes simplex were included in this study. Twenty five patients(six with primary type and nineteen with recurrent type were treated with topical applicatiion of 0.3% zinc sulfate solutiion seven to eight times a day and nine patients(three with primary type and six with recurrent type)were applied with placebo vehicle in the same way. Maintenance treatment was then given tc all these patients, first once a week for one month, and then twice a month indefinitely. The effect was assessed by the comparison of the duration of disappearance of symptoms, drying of vesicles and crust formation, and desiccation and sloughing-off of cursts, and recurrence rate between zine sulfat,e group and placebo group. The resuilts were summarized as follows : 1. In the average time of the disappearance of symptoms, drying of vesicles and crust formation, a,nd desiccation and sloughing-off of crusts, the resu1t observecl in zinc, sulfate group was shorter than that of placebo group, respectively ( p < 0.01). 2. In recurrence rate, 11.1% observed in zinc sulfate group was much lower than 80.0%i in placebo group(p . 0.01). These findings suggest that topical zinc sulfate is an effective agent for treatment and prevention of recurrence af herpes simplex infection.