December 7, 1936

Sulfanilamide

A child at Baltimore’s Sydenham Hospital receives landmark sulfanilamide treatment for streptococcal meningitis

The girl was admitted on 4 December and went home alive on Christmas Day. Almost every other detail in the listing — the exact date, the world-first claim, the 99% figure — does not survive checking.

What the record actually supports

A girl was admitted to Sydenham Hospital in Baltimore on 4 December 1936 with fever, headache and a stiff neck, and was diagnosed with streptococcal meningitis. Conventional serum therapy produced no response.

Francis Schwentker's team then administered sulfanilamide, and the physicians reported rapid clinical improvement. The girl survived and was discharged on 25 December, becoming Sydenham's first recorded survivor of streptococcal meningitis.

The specific date of 7 December is not securely established by the scholarly sources consulted; the documented chronology is admission on the 4th, treatment after serum failed, and discharge on the 25th.

Not the first in the world

The claim of a world first does not hold. Caussé, Loiseau and Gisselbrecht had already reported a French recovery from streptococcal meningitis after Prontosil treatment in February 1936.

What the Baltimore case can defensibly be called is the first American pediatric sulfanilamide trial for meningitis, and Sydenham's first streptococcal-meningitis survivor.

The 99 percent that wasn’t

A contemporary literature review estimated mortality at at least 97 percent, not 99, and documented 66 earlier recoveries. Sydenham itself reported roughly 30 percent mortality under its pre-sulfa serum protocol.

Prontosil and sulfanilamide are related but not identical: Prontosil is metabolized into the active compound sulfanilamide, which Paul Gelmo had first synthesized in 1908.

Schwentker's better-known series of meningococcal cases — a different disease — was published in April 1937.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 7 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at 1936-12.

What the sources leave uncertain

The exact date 7 December is not securely established by the scholarly sources consulted. The best documented chronology is admission on 4 December, treatment after serum failed, and discharge on 25 December.
The “first successful treatment” claim is false if meant worldwide. A French case treated with the sulfonamide drug Prontosil had already been reported in February 1936.
The Sydenham case can defensibly be described as the first American pediatric sulfanilamide trial for meningitis and Sydenham’s first streptococcal-meningitis survivor.