A chemical substance either synthesized by man or produced by bacteria or fungi which has the capability to inhibit the growth of or to destroy bacteria or other germs. A substance, usually protein or protein-sugar complex in nature, which, being foreign to the bloodstream or tissues of an animal, stimulates the formation of specific blood serum antibodies and white blood cell activity. Re-exposure to similar antigen will reactivate the white blood cells and antibody programmed against this specific antigen.
Most antiviral agents are members of the antimetabolite family.
Breakdown of a blister produces an ulcer. An acute, highly infectious illness, principally of young children, caused by the chicken pox-herpes zoster virus and marked by fever and successive eruptions of clear blisters over the body. Chicken pox may enter latency in the deep nerve ganglia and reactivate years later in the form of herpes zoster. A localized collection of clear fluid causing elevation of the skin, separating it into an upper and lower layer. Breakdown of a blister produces an ulcer.