Antiviral Drugs

Historically, the development of antiviral drugs has lagged behind the development of other antimicrobial agents. Since the early 1950s when the search began for antiviral agents, the demand for new antiviral strategies has increased gradually and remarkably. Multiple factors have contributed to this increasing demand and research for newer antiviral agents. The ever-increasing incidence of acute herpes infections, the prevalence of chronic viral infections such as HIV and hepatitis B and C, along with the emergence of new challenging viruses such as the SARS coronavirus causing pandemics have put an impetus to our research on antivirals. Antiviral drugs share the common property of being virustatic; they are active only against replicating viruses and do not affect latent viruses [1].