ABSTRACT
During the past two decades there has been substantial progress in the development of chemotherapeutic agents and vaccines for the treatment of human viral infections. As important as these advances have been in the management of certain infections, e.g., the wide variety of herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections, pharmaceutical research laboratories have been, with two notable exceptions, ribavirin for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection, and amantidine/rimantidine for influenza A infections, notably unsuccessful in bringing to market new agents effective against the common respiratory viruses. The ideal characteristics of an antiviral agent for treatment or prevention of respiratory virus infection are seen in Table I.
