Looking for information on viruses? You may have arrived here searching for the phrase "viral infection", although quite often they opt for the more questioning, "what is a viral infection", hence this page.
A viral infection is essentially the colonization of a host species by a virus. If said host is a person, then a viral infection can produce remarkably diverse effects, ranging from the familiar coughs and sneezes of the common cold to full-blown AIDS and everything in between. For the record, antibiotics do not have antiviral effects. They may help ward off secondary infections while a person is suffering the effects of a viral infection, but they don't kill viruses. Indeed, many antibiotics don't even kill their pathogenic targets - the bacteria, because of emerging bacterial resistance. Read David Bradley's item in Nature Reviews: Drug Discovery to find out why the pharmaceutical industry abandoned antiobiotics research and why it is moving back into this market again.
Anyway, Wikipedia provides a nice list of viral infections for readers who came here looking for the sometimes gory (think Ebola) details. Here are some of the all time favourites: AIDS, Chickenpox, Common cold, Cytomegalovirus, Colorado tick fever, Dengue fever, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Epidemic parotitis, Flu, Hand, foot and mouth disease, Hepatitis, Herpes zoster, Influenza, Lassa fever, Measles, Marburg hemorrhagic fever, Infectious mononucleosis, Mumps, Poliomyelitis, Progressive multifocal leukencephalopathy, Rabies, Rubella, SARS, Smallpox, – Viral meningitis, West Nile disease, Yellow fever. A linked up version of this list is available from Wikipedia itself, together with listings of bacterial infections, parasitic infections, prion diseases, and almost everyone's Saturday nightmare, fungal infections (think athlete's foot, jock itch, and thrush).
To learn more about the nature of emerging viral infection, you might like to read David Bradley's report from the Royal Society. If you're worried about bird flu check out our FAQ on the subject or grab a copy of the book on how to survive an epidemic here http://scibase.msirpis.hop.clickbank.net.