The paper deals with the etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of acute respiratory viral infections (ARVI). It considers the currently available methods of etiotropic treatment and the tactics of antiviral therapy. Taking into consideration the fact that ARVI treatment is so far a considerable challenge associated with both the unreasonably widespread use of antibiotics and the giant market saturation with pharmaceuticals for the symptomatic therapy for ARVI, the author gives a critical analysis of medications used for the pharmacotherapy of respiratory viral infections.