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Palliative cancer care - oral problems - Management
How should I treat oral herpes simplex infection?

  • Advise bed rest, maintenance of adequate fluid intake and use of antipyretics where necessary.
  • In immunocompetent people who are in the early stages of an uncomplicated herpes simplex infection in the locality of the lips, commence topical aciclovir or penciclovir.
  • In immunocompetent people who are in the early stages of an intraoral herpes infection, commence oral aciclovir.
  • In immunocompromised people commence oral aciclovir urgently wherever the herpes simplex infection is located.
  • Admit people with severe infection or people who are severely immunocompromised.

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