The potential use of anti-enteroviral drugs in the immunocompromised

Therapy for enteroviral infection is now a reality, and one compound, pleconaril, has been successfully used in a number of clinical trials, with others likely to follow over the next few years. Antibody-deficient patients are particularly prone to chronic enteroviral infection, and have proved to be a useful model in which to examine the efficacy of new drugs. Apart from polioviruses, immunization and immunotherapy to prevent and treat infection is probably impracticable because so many different strains are involved. Ultimately, combination drug therapy will probably be the best strategy to treat chronic infection.