Low-dosage cytarabine therapy for herpes zoster with pneumonia.

Disseminated herpes zoster infection is frequently fatal. Cytarabine (cytosine arabinoside), a drug of variable efficacy, has offered some hope in the treatment of this condition. In this case of disseminated herpes zoster infection with pneumonia, there was remarkable recovery after low-dosage cytarabine infusion. The findings suggest that doses of the drug not exceeding 30 mg/sq m of body surface per 24 hours (30 mg/sq m/24 hr) may well be virucidal but not cytohematotoxic.