Simple Pharmanotes

The drugs which are used in treatment of viral infections are called as “Antiviral Drugs”. What are Viruses? Viruses are intra cellular parasites which can not replicate on their own and hence require host cells to replicate. They can infect all life forms. They have simple structure which contains, An envelope: A lipid coating, in some cases it may be absent. Capsid coat: Its a viral protein coat that covers the viral nucleic material. Nucleic Material: It may be DNA or RNA. Shapes may be different from simple to complex. Most viruses have particle size so small that they can not be watched from optical microscopes. Classification: Viruses are classified by two main ways, Using ICTV (International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses). Baltimore Classification. 1) ICTV Classification: ICTV classification is based on taxonomy of viruses and identifies nearly 80 families and 5000 subspecies of viruses. e.g. Chicken Pox virus: Varicella zoster (VZV) Order :...