Armstrong – Table of Contents

November 1938, was a 23-year old African-American housewife who presented with the
classical clinical and laboratory findings of LCM. Armstrong isolated the virus in white
mice and guinea pigs from spinal fluid, blood and urine. The patient developed
convalescent antibodies. The second patient, who also became ill November 1938, was a
17-year old African-American adolescent, a general cleaner in a well-kept apartment
house. He developed a febrile illness with meningeal signs. He was admitted to Gallinger
Hospital after a spinal needle broke off in his back following an attempted lumbar
puncture to obtain fluid. His initial clinical course and laboratory results were consistent
with LCM. Specimens for virus isolation were collected late (eleventh day of illness), and
virus was not isolated. He did, however, develop protective antibodies in late
convalescence. After the acute illness he returned to his home in West Virginia where he
was hospitalized for low-grade fever and non-specific neurological symptoms. He
recovered fully.
The occurrence of these local cases presented Armstrong with the opportunity to
study some of the family contacts and home conditions in order to possibly help increase
his knowledge of how the disease might be spreading. He began his study by obtaining
sera from some family members. Sera from the husband and brother-in-law of Patient 1
possessed no antibodies. Serum from a second brother-in-law, who had lived in the
affected home for several years was, however, strongly protective. Patient 2 roomed with
a married couple whose sera were also examined for LCM antibodies. Blood from his
landlady contained potent antibodies, while the serum of the husband was only
moderately potent.