Abstract
Allergic contact dermatitis to topical agents mostly results from vehicles and preservatives and rarely from the active ingredients. Ribavirin, an active ingredient of Viramid® cream, is a synthetic nucleoside derivative with broad spectrum activity against a wide variety of DNA and RNA viruses. We report an 18-year-old woman, who had a perioral edematous patch with exudative crusts after topical application of Viramid® cream (nsung pharmaceutical Co., Korea) for the treatment of herpes labiahs. A patch test showed that the sensitizer was ribavirin, the active ingredient of the antiviral agent, Viramid® cream.