Mary Mallon, known as Typhoid Mary, was
considered to be a healthy carrier of typhoid fever, the first case in the United States.
Known for consistently denying that she was spreading the disease, Mary worked
as a cook in New York City
for years and transferred the disease to many people before she was quarantined.
The Story
Mary Mallon was born in Ireland
in 1869 and immigrated to the United
States in 1884. She worked as a chef from
1900 to 1907, causing fifty-three people to become infected and three to die
before she was quarantined the first time. She was quarantined for three years
at a hospital on North
Brother Island.
In 1910, she was released after she promised that she would no longer work as a
cook and work harder to prevent spreading the disease.
After her release, Mary was given a job as a laundress,
which paid less than what she could get as a cook. She returned to her
occupation as a cook under the pseudonym Mary Brown. In 1915, twenty-five
people were infected and one person died as a result of her cooking at New York's Sloane
Hospital for Women. After
this outbreak, Mary was tracked down and arrested. She remained quarantined
until she died on November 11, 1938.
It is often theorized that she was born with the disease,
because her mother had typhoid fever while she was pregnant with Mary. Since
Mary never went through an episode with typhoid fever, this is the most likely
reason for her ability to spread the disease.
Defining Typhoid
Fever & Healthy Carrier
Typhoid
fever is usually contracted after ingesting contaminated food. Since this
particular disease cannot be contracted by animals, a human had to be the
culprit.
A healthy carrier is
someone who can spread the disease while still being healthy. Human carriers of
typhoid fever are generally people who have survived an experience of typhoid
fever, but still have typhoid bacteria surviving without experiencing further
symptoms. These people are otherwise healthy, but continue to excrete the
bacteria. Vigorous scrubbing with soap and hot water is essential to remove the
bacteria from the hands.
Other Notable Healthy
Typhoid Carriers
Typhoid Mary has become a generic term to describe a healthy
person carrying a dangerous disease. There have been other healthy typhoid
carriers including Tony Labella, an Italian immigrant who contaminated one-hundred
people and caused five deaths. And another, an Adirondack
guide often referred to as Typhoid John, infected thirty-six people and caused
36 deaths.
Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mallon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoid_fever
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymptomatic_carrier
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Re: Meet “Typhoid Mary”
