TORONTO-Immunocompromised children with varicella may be able to skip half their hospitalization for IV therapy.
A team at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, noting that the kids seemed active and cheerful after four days of IV acyclovir, now sends them home much sooner than the standard week to 10 days if they have no fever or new lesions and can tolerate the drug orally.
After at least 48 hours of IV therapy and 24 hours of oral, 25 immunocompromised kids recovered without complications at home, safely away from nosocomial threats, Dr. Susan King told the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy here. None needed to return to IV therapy.
As a group, they’d had fever for two days and new lesions for 2.9 days, in the same range as otherwise healthy children.
