Antivirals for COPD?

Do antiviral drugs have a place in the management of COPD? A provocative article in this issue of CHEST suggests that they might.1 Linden et al1 performed a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial of valacyclovir in participants with moderate to severe COPD to learn whether suppression of oral Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) replication by an antiviral drug could have a clinical benefit.1 The authors hypothesized that chronic EBV infection of the respiratory epithelium was causing inflammation, which in turn aggravated airway obstruction.