Acyclovir To Prevent Cytomegalovirus Infection after Renal Transplantation

Excerpt

To the Editors: The recent article by Plotkin and colleagues (1) confirms the role of pretransplant immunity in the reduction of cytomegalovirus disease severity in renal transplant recipients at high risk for primary disease. It is noteworthy that the Towne live virus vaccine did not induce latency or increase the incidence of neoplasm. In the accompanying editorial, Balfour (2) commented on the different options for preventing cytomegalovirus disease. He underlined his enthusiasm for the use of high-dose acyclovir in "all patients."

On the basis of the results of a 1989 study by Balfour and colleagues, we conducted an open-label trial