What is antiviral?
Antiviral is an action that targets the development of viral infections. It helps the body in fighting against pathogenic viruses that reduce the severity of symptoms and shortens the time duration of the infection. Viruses are intracellular pathogens that make use of their host’s cellular machinery to replicate and kick-start the infection. Therefore, designing synthetic antiviral drugs is a tedious job because it is difficult to find targets that would only interfere with the virus without inflicting harm to the host’s cells.
Azidothymidine (AZT) is the very first antiviral drug that is licensed for clinical use to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS. Currently, about 50 antiviral drugs are approved for human use.
What are the herbal benefits of antivirals?
Antivirals work pragmatically to help with:
- Fever and flu symptoms
- Shorten the duration of malady
- Reduce the risk of complications, such as respiratory issues, ear infections in children, and hospitalization
- Reducing the chances of contracting and spreading viral infections (such as herpes and HIV)
- Lowering the chances of cytomegalovirus infection in renal transplant patients
- Preventing further infections in immunocompromised patients
- Chickenpox
- Keratitis
- Mucocutaneous infections