The August 2005 edition of the Journal of Oral Pathology & Medicine reports that systemic zinc sulphate appears to reduce both the number of episodes and the time to recovery of herpes labialis.

Twenty patients (12 females; median age 26.6 years) with a history of recurrent herpes labialis >6 episodes each year were treated with systemic zinc sulphate 22.5 mg twice daily for the months of February, March, September and October. All patients were followed for 12 months.

Herpetic lesions reduced to <4 episodes (average 3) for the 12 months and the duration was <7 days for each episode (average 5.7). The researchers concluded that systemic zinc sulphate appeared to reduce both the number of episodes and the time to recovery of herpes labialis.

Journal of Oral Pathology & Medicine Volume 34 Issue 7 Page 423 - August 2005 (posted 1 Aug 2005)