Treating Influenza Outbreaks

Posted by Uni Blake May 2, 2009

Antiviral drugs are commonly used to treat viral infections like the flu. They do not destroy the virus but effectively disable it or stop its reproductive cycle. A virus’s main intention once it infects a host like a human cell is to replicate itself. In the replication process it causes harm to the cells, affecting their function and the health of the infected person. The goal of antiviral drugs is to disrupt the virus life cycle; with advances in viral genome research it is possible to create drugs that target different phases of the virus’s lifecycle. Different viruses have different surface proteins. The body develops is antibodies mostly based on the surface proteins. Vaccines allow the body to fight of an active infection by pre-developing immunity, so when the body is infected actively it is has the built in ability to fight off the infection. However, there are many different combinations of the virus’s proteins creating a difficulty in predicting and creating the right vaccines.

The future of immunizing against influenza lies in universal vaccines which can immunize against a variety of influenza virus strains.