Final answer:
A nurse should administer acyclovir for a client with genital herpes, as it is an antiviral medication used to manage HSV infections by decreasing the frequency and severity of outbreaks.
Step-by-step explanation:
The medication that a nurse should expect to administer for a client with genital herpes is acyclovir. Antiviral medications like acyclovir are prescribed to manage the infection by keeping the herpes simplex virus (HSV) in a latent phase and reducing the signs and symptoms of the disease. While acyclovir is not curative, as the virus remains latent in the nervous tissue for life, it can significantly make the symptoms more manageable. Not only does acyclovir reduce the number and duration of active viral disease episodes, but it also has a specificity for virus-infected cells, needing a viral enzyme to activate it and a higher affinity for viral DNA polymerase compared to that of host cells.
Other drugs for genital herpes include famciclovir and valacyclovir. It's important to note that other options listed, such as metronidazole, amoxicillin, and fluconazole, are not used to treat genital herpes. Metronidazole is typically used for bacterial infections like bacterial vaginosis or trichomoniasis, amoxicillin is a broad-spectrum antibiotic effective against certain bacteria, and fluconazole is an antifungal medication used to treat yeast infections.