Antiviral Medications

QUESTION: Whenever I visit my doctor with a cold, or what he calls a "stomach
virus", I am told that there is no medication that kills these viruses. Yet
when some of my friends visit their physicians, they are given antibiotics to
help cure their symptoms. Do their doctors know something mine doesn't, and
do you think it's time for me to change my doctor?
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ANSWER: Many different types of infections may cause the same symptoms. For
example, a sore throat may be the result of a bacterial infection, perhaps a
streptococcus causing a "strep throat", raw and painful, and readily treated
with an antibiotic which can only kill bacteria. The same sore throat caused
by a virus will be unaffected by antibiotics, since the mechanisms by which
viruses live and reproduce are quite different from those of bacteria.
Medical science has just begun to develop effective medications which can
control viral infections, but as yet none have been developed for the more
common respiratory and digestive complaints. However, we now have amantadine
as an effective prophylactic agent against the influenza A virus. Other
antiviral agents exist for infections caused by herpes viruses (acyclovir),
and still another is useful in the treatment of symptomatic HIV (AIDS)
infection and is called zidovudine. Many of the present antiviral agents
interfere with the virus' ability to manufacture DNA and RNA, genetic
material necessary for reproduction. All of the currently available antiviral
agents have very specific indications for use, and many of them have severe
side effects, which may further limit their use. I don't think your friends'
physicians know any more than your doctor, it appears to be a question of
different diseases. However, any time you begin to lose confidence in your
own physician, even when diagnoses and treatments have been appropriate, may
be a time for reconsidering this most important relationship.