By Nathan Seppa
A report of a new treatment for a deadly virus might pass for a movie script — so much so that a version of it is already showing in a theater near you.
Much like the virus that wreaked havoc in the movie “Contagion,” the rare Hendra virus and its close cousin Nipah virus can rapidly kill the people they infect. Researchers have now designed and mass-produced a highly specialized antibody against Hendra and used it as an immune therapy that can halt the infection in monkeys. The drug may also apply to the related Nipah virus, since both invade cells via the same portals, scientists report in the October 19 Science Translational Medicine.
Hendra virus has infected and killed scores of horses in Australia and jumped to people on several occasions. While only a dozen people have contracted Hendra infections, some have died. Nipah virus is carried by pigs and has infected hundreds of people in Malaysia, Singapore and Bangladesh, with fatality rates ranging from 40 to 70 percent (SN: 12/19/09, p. 15).