Antiviral Agents

Viral infections are treated by a special type of drugs called antiviral agents. Unique antiviral agents are used to treat different types of viral infestation. Antiviral agents should not be mistaken with viricides.

The largest quantity of antiviral agents drugs nowadays are made to fight the HIV or AIDS virus, herpes virus, influenza viruses, hepatitis A,B,C viruses. The effectiveness of some means are significant but some still need a more sophisticated approach.

To understand how antiviral agents medications work we need to know the stages of viral development:

• Attachment to a cell
• Release of viral DNA, RNA or enzymes into the cell
• Replication of the DNA which is done by the infected cell
• Assembly of the virus
• Release of the virus from the cell

The possible stages that can be affected by antiviral agents are:

• Firstly before virus attachment when a virus is located in the intracellular space it can be inhibited
• Secondly the phase of replication can be affected
• And lastly the Stage of release is targeted.

Viral infestations are very serious and should be treated with appropriate antiviral agents drugs and should not be mistaken with microbial infection.