Epidemic Neuromyasthenia: Outbreak among Nurses at a Children's Hospital

Abstract

Between August 1970 and January 1971 nearly 150 of the staff of a London teaching hospital were affected by an illness with features in common with what is currently known as epidemic neuromyasthenia. Symptomatology was protean, clinical findings minimal, relapses frequent, and results of laboratory investigations, including virological studies, were generally negative. Most of the patients were nurses. Care was taken to minimize anxiety and fear in a vulnerable population, and laboratory investigations were limited in number for this reason.