The human monoclonal antibody known as m102.4, which has proven effective in protecting against the frequently fatal Hendra virus, has now been shown in studies to protect against the closely related Nipah virus — the basis of the 2011 movie “Contagion” — a highly infectious and deadly agent that results in acute respiratory distress syndrome and encephalitis, person-to-person transmission, and greater than 90 percent case fatality rates among humans. In experiments carried out at UTMB where there is a high-containment facility for working with live Nipah virus, the team of researchers, under the direction of Thomas W. Geisbert, demonstrated that administering a human monoclonal antibody therapy after exposure to Nipah virus protected the animals from disease. “There are currently no licensed and approved vaccines or therapeutics for prevention and treatment of disease caused by these viruses for humans or livestock,” says Geisbert. “This human monoclonal antibody is the first effective antiviral drug against Nipah virus and Hendra virus that has a real potential for human therapeutic applications.” The news also appears in the Global Post, Yahoo! Brazil, Medical Xpress, Science Codex, the Shanghai Daily and Medical News Today.