Frequently used antiviral agents in the clinical environment

Seunghoon Han; Dong-Seok Yim

doi:10.5124/jkma.2011.54.5.530

J Korean Med Assoc > Volume 54(5); 2011 > Article

Han and Yim: Frequently used antiviral agents in the clinical environment

Pharmacotherapeutics

Journal of the Korean Medical Association

Journal of the Korean Medical Association 2011; 54(5): 530-536.

Published online: May 11, 2011

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2011.54.5.530

Frequently used antiviral agents in the clinical environment

Seunghoon Han, MD^1,², Dong-Seok Yim, MD^1,²

¹Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.

²Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.

Corresponding author: Dong-Seok Yim, yimds@catholic.ac.kr

Received March 21, 2011 Accepted April 05, 2011

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

More than 60 antiviral agents for various infectious diseases such as herpes, hepatitis, influenza, and AIDS are currently prescribed worldwide. Among the viral infections, hepatitis B and influenza are those frequently seen in primary care situations in Korea. This review discusses the anti-hepatitis B (HBV) drugs entecavir and adefovir, and the anti-influenza drugs oseltamivir and zanamivir. In addition, the pharmacology and therapeutic guidance suggested by the Korean Association for the Study of the Liver were reviewed for entecavir and adepovir, the most frequently prescribed anti-HBV drugs. For influenza, oseltamivir is commonly used despite debates on neuropsychiatric safety issues and zanamivir may be used when an inhalation form is necessary. Although currently used drugs show considerable clinical efficacy, efforts to optimize their use and further research to find new molecules that may overcome their limitations are necessary.

Antiviral agent; Hepatitis B; Influenza

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