Antiviral chemotherapy is of increasing interest in veterinary medicine. Besides "true" antiviral chemotherapeutics and interferons, immunomodulators (or immunostimulatory agents or biological response modifiers) are commonly used to treat viral infections. It has been suggested that these agents benefit infected animals by restoring compromised immune function, thereby allowing the patient to control viral burden and recover from associated clinical syndromes. There is, however, no conclusive evidence from controlled studies that these drugs have any beneficial effect on health or survival of animals with virus infections. An unspecific stimulation of the immune system might even be contraindicated in some infections (e.g., in feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) because these drugs can lead to an increased virus replication caused by activation of latently infected lymphocytes and macrophages, and therefore can effect a progression of disease, or in cats with feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) as clinical signs in FEP develop as a result of an overwhelming immune-mediated response).
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