Future management of herpesvirus infections.
The clinical investigations conducted to date with herpesviruses have provided a good grounding into the general principles of herpesvirus replication and pathogenesis. Multiple opportunities for intervention include prevention of initial infection, prevention of reactivation, suppression of reactivated virus, and treatment of established disease. Studies have shown that each of these approaches can be effective against one or more herpesviruses. What is needed now are studies combining sequential interventions so that patients who fail, for example, prophylaxis with one drug can be entered directly into trials of suppression and then into pre-emptive therapy, each with different antiviral agents. In this way, it is to be hoped that increasing proportions of cohorts of susceptible patients will suffer less from herpesvirus infections. Clearly, the design of such clinical trials needs to be constantly refined as methods of diagnosis and understanding of pathogenic mechanisms improve and as new agents are discovered.
Griffiths
P D
PD
Department of Virology, Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London, United Kingdom.
D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006566:Herpesviridae Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans
D000998:Antiviral Agents