Oral Ranitidine in Molluscum Contagiosum: A Novel Common Treatment Modality for a Common Disease

Molluscum contagiosum[MC] is one of the most common viral infections in a child. It is usually a benign and self-limiting condition, but treatment is required due to risk of transmission and cosmetic concerns. There are many therapies available including effective painful invasive methods (cryo, curettage) and less efficacious topical agents. However most of them are associated with pain, irritation and scarring, which are not well tolerated in children. There are studies showing efficacy of oral cimetidine in children with MC. We thus extrapolated its immunomodulatory effect to ranitidine and treated a child with recurrent multiple facial molluscums with oral ranitidine (5mg/kg/day in two divided doses) for 8weeks. Our patient showed complete clearance in 6weeks with no recurrence even after 2 months of stopping therapy. Thus we conclude that oral ranitidine should be considered as a simple, effective and safe alternative treatment for widespread, or recurrent MC in immunocompetent children.