Resolution of recalcitrant molluscum contagiosum virus lesions in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients treated with cidofovir.

BACKGROUND: Molluscum contagiosum virus (MCV) causes cutaneous skin growths that mainly affect children, sexually active adults, and immunocompromised individuals. Lesions of MCV in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus can be large and numerous, and response to available treatments is often unsatisfactory.

OBSERVATIONS: We describe 3 men infected with human immunodeficiency virus who presented with extensive MCV lesions that were not responsive to various treatments. Patient 1 demonstrated dramatic clearing of his MCV lesions when intravenous cidofovir therapy was started for his treatment-resistant bilateral CMV retinitis and because of cidofovir's possible activity against MCV. In case 2, cidofovir was compounded as a 3% cream in a combination vehicle (Dermovan) for extensive facial involvement, and complete resolution of MCV was seen after 1 month of therapy. In case 3, intravenous cidofovir therapy was started both for CMV retinitis and in an attempt to clear 90% facial MCV involvement; after 1 month of treatment, all clinical evidence of MCV had resolved. All 3 patients remain clear of recurrence.

CONCLUSIONS: Cidofovir, a nucleotide analog of deoxycytidine monophosphate, appears to have contributed to clearing of advanced MCV lesions in these 3 patients, thus providing suggestive evidence of clinical activity against MCV. Controlled trials of cidofovir therapy for MCV in persons infected with human immunodeficiency virus are warranted.