PEDIATRICS Vol. 79 No. 2 February 1987, pp. 289-291
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow P3Rs: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when P3Rs are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by ISAACS, D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by ISAACS, D.

Ribavirin

DAVID ISAACS MD, MRCP1

1 Infectious Diseases Unit, Department of Paediatrics, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford, England

Immunization has proved to be the most effective way of controlling viral diseases, and the development of antiviral drugs has lagged behind the development of antibacterial agents. Many of the early antiviral agents were DNA nucleoside analogs such as idoxuridine, cytarabine, and vidarabine, which competitively inhibited replication of DNA viruses, especially herpes viruses. An important advance was the deliberate synthesis of a purine nucleoside analog, acyclovir, which is only active following phosphorylation, which is carried out selectively by virus-coded thymidine kinase. Acyclovir is active against some herpesviruses, particularly herpes simplex virus, but not against RNA viruses, and appears to have low toxicity because of the low level of phosphorylation by host cell thymidine kinase.