Antiviral Drug Appears Safe in Pregnant Women

Pregnant women taking a common antiviral drug for herpes do not have babies with more birth defects, says a large Danish study. Researchers looked at births in Denmark from 1996 to 2008. The study included about 840,000 births. Of those, 1,800 women took acyclovir during the first trimester of pregnancy. This is a common drug prescribed to treat outbreaks of genital herpes. Babies born to these women were not at greater risk of birth defects, compared with babies born to women not taking the drug. Two other drugs are sometimes used to treat genital herpes. Taking these drugs did not appear to put pregnant women at risk for birth defects, but the numbers were small. The study was published August 25 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. HealthDay News wrote about it August 24.