Final answer:
The antiviral medication that includes viral uncoating of the influenza A virus is amantadine. It inhibits the escape of the virus from endosomes, which halts viral RNA release and replication within host cells.
Step-by-step explanation:
The antiviral medication effective against Influenza A virus that includes viral uncoating is amantadine. Amantadine is known to prevent the influenza virus from escaping the endosome within host cells, which is essential for the viral RNA to be released into the host cells for replication. A relative of amantadine, rimantadine, functions similarly. However, increasing resistance has limited the use of both drugs in treating influenza A. In contrast, oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and other neuraminidase inhibitors like zanamivir (Relenza) and peramivir (Rapivab) work by inhibiting the neuraminidase enzyme, which prevents the release of the virus from infected cells, but they do not directly involve uncoating.
Drugs such as acyclovir are developed for treating herpes, not influenza, and they do not prevent the uncoating of the influenza virus. Similarly, zidovudine is used to treat HIV and is not involved in the treatment or mechanisms affecting influenza virus uncoating.