A 27-year-old woman comes to the office with fatigue, fever, and extremely painful genital lesions. She has never had such symptoms before. She is sexually active with a new partner. On examination, the patient has several tiny, thin-walled vesicles on an erythematous base and exquisitely tender, shallow ulcers on the labia. Tender inguinal lymphadenopathy is present. Tzanck smear of the genital lesions shows multinucleated giant cells. A drug is prescribed that can be used to manage this acute episode and prevent future episodes of this patient's condition. This drug most likely works by which of the following mechanisms?

Question

A 27-year-old woman comes to the office with fatigue, fever, and extremely painful genital lesions.  She has never had such symptoms before.  She is sexually active with a new partner.  On examination, the patient has several tiny, thin-walled vesicles on an erythematous base and exquisitely tender, shallow ulcers on the labia.  Tender inguinal lymphadenopathy is present.  Tzanck smear of the genital lesions shows multinucleated giant cells.  A drug is prescribed that can be used to manage this acute episode and prevent future episodes of this patient's condition.  This drug most likely works by which of the following mechanisms?

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Eductional Objective: Antiviral drugs currently recommended for the treatment of primary genital herpes include the nucleoside analogs (eg, acyclovir).  These are incorporated into newly replicating viral DNA and ultimately terminate viral DNA chain synthesis.

A 27-Year-Old Woman Comes to the Office with Fatigue, Fever