There is no no medical treatment which definitely eliminates this virus from the body.

Since the symptoms disappear on their own by 7-10 days, most people choose not to treat them with medication.

Some treatments allow however relieve symptoms and slightly reduce their period :

• Paracetamol (Doliprane®, Efferalgan®…) helps relieve pain;
• Penciclovir cream (Denavir®) in Canada. Applied every 2 hours (except during sleep), a penciclovir cream concentrated at 1% slightly accelerates healing. It is obtained on order. Study finds healing in 4,8 days with pencyclovir rather than 5,5 days with placebo²⁰. It is always best to apply as soon as symptoms appear. This cream still retains a certain effectiveness, even if the lesions have been present for a few days;
• Aciclovir cream (Zovirax®). It is applied to the cold sore, 4 to 5 times a day, for 5 days, to reduce the duration of the push²². The cream is most effective when applied as early as possible, at the warning signs;
• Docosanol cream in Canada. As soon as symptoms appear, applying 10% docosanol cream to the lesion prevents the virus from multiplying. It is applied 5 times a day until the lesion is healed, for a maximum of 10 days. According to a clinical trial, docosanol cream accelerates healing by 18 hours, on average (healing in 4 days rather than 4,8 days with placebo)²¹.

Oral treatments. These drugs are most effective when taken when the first symptoms appear:

• Famciclovir. This is a prescription treatment of a day, which is taken in 2 doses. According to one study, the average duration of lesions was 4 days instead of 6,2 days for the placebo group²;
• Aciclovir (200 mg 3 to 5 times a day): accelerates healing if taken early, at the first signs;
• Valaciclovir : 2 recent clinical trials have shown that oral administration of 2 g of valaciclovir over 24 hours reduced the duration of the seizure and pain by approximately 1 day²³.