So why don't we prescribe virucides then?
Virology is a complex subject, and it takes years reading about it to even begin to understand the full picture.
The viruses linked to ME/CFS (coxsackievirus B, echovirus, EBV, HHV-6, cytomegalovirus and parvovirus B19) are generally impossible to fully eradicate from the body, because they hide their viral genome (the genes to build a new virus) inside human cells.
One of the ways they do this is by a mechanism called viral latency. Latency is where the virus hides away, in order to come back and fight another day.
For example, HHV-6 will actually insert its own genes into your genes, so that the virus becomes part of your own DNA. This is called chromosomal integration. So then when HHV-6 wants to awaken from latency, and start producing more viral particles, it can do so using its viral DNA which it has stored inside your DNA.
Viruses like EBV and cytomegalovirus also store their genome inside your cells for latency purposes, so that they can start producing new viral particles in the future. In these cases, these viruses store their DNA as episomes, which they put inside your cells.
Enteroviruses like coxsackievirus B and echovirus are not able to enter latency, but use another way to store their viral genomes inside your cells: they store their genome in a string of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) in your cells. These strings of dsRNA are called non-cytolytic enteroviruses, and they live entirely within human cells. Dr John Chia and others believe that non-cytolytic coxsackievirus B and non-cytolytic echovirus may be a major cause of ME/CFS.
So even if you use an antiviral or virucidal substance to kill off all the viral particles floating in your blood and tissues, you will usually not be able eradicate the virus from your body, because the virus has hidden its genetic instructions inside your cells, and is thereby able to make new viral particles at any time it pleases in future.
If we wanted to fully eradicate a virus from the body, we would probably have to develop new drugs that can destroy viruses in their latency states, and in their non-cytolytic states.
In terms of the difference between antivirals and virucidal compounds, generally virucides are too harsh to use in the body, as they destroy viral particles by mechanisms such as bleaching, and obviously you cannot drink bleach.
Antivirals are perfectly adequate for destroying viruses, as they work by inhibiting viral replication. Once a viral particle enters a cell, it will typically replicate itself around 20,000 times, creating 20,000 new viral particles. So if you can prevent this replication, as antiviral drugs do, then you are preventing millions of new viruses from being created in your body.
