"Typhoid Mary" is the nickname given to Mary Mallon, a woman who became infamous in the early 20th century for spreading typhoid fever, a deadly and highly contagious disease at the time.
Mary was an Irish immigrant who worked as a household cook in New York City during the early 1900s. She seemed healthy, robust even, but unbeknownst to her, she was a carrier of the bacterium Salmonella typhi, the cause of typhoid fever. While she herself never showed any symptoms of the disease, she had the ability to transmit the bacterium to others, particularly via the food she prepared.
Between 1900 and 1907, Mallon cooked for several different well-to-do families in the New York area, and wherever she went, outbreaks of typhoid fever seemed to follow. She is believed to have infected between 51 and 122 people with the infection, causing three confirmed deaths, and with unconfirmed estimates of as many as 50.
Public health officials had been baffled by the recurring outbreaks. Eventually, investigators from the New York City Department of Health, led by Dr. George Soper, began to trace the source of these outbreaks.
Soper, a sanitary engineer turned sleuth, came to see Mary as his Moriarty, hunting the cook down before she could infect more unsuspecting victims.
She was eventually identified as the source, and forcibly quarantined not once, but twice by authorities; the second time In 1915 on North Brother Island in New York's East River, where she spent the rest of her life. Mary died on 11 November 1938, from complications related to a stroke.
Doctors have theorised that Mary likely passed along typhoid germs by failing to wash her hands before handling food. Uncooked food is the hazard. Soper deduced that one likely culprit was one of Mallon’s most popular dessert dishes … ice cream containing hand-cut raw peaches. “I suppose no better way could be found for a cook to cleanse her hands of microbes and infect a family”, Soper wrote.
Mary’s a fascinating true story of desperation and unintentional murder. In 2005 It was celebrated in the book Typhoid Mary by a sympathetic Anthony Bourdain, in what is effectively an homage from one cook to another.
Mary’s popular nickname has since become a term for persons who spread disease or other misfortune, not always aware that they are doing so.
The case of Typhoid Mary raised significant ethical questions about the balance between public health and individual rights. It highlighted the challenges of dealing with asymptomatic carriers of infectious diseases, and the need for regulations to prevent their unintentional transmission.
Mary’s story remains a prominent case study in the history of epidemiology and public health.
Story Idea: Remo Giuffré
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References
wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mallon
history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-typhoid-mary
pbs.org/wgbh/nova/typhoid/mary.html
Images
1. Typhoid Mary feature in 20 June 1909 issue of The New York American
2. Typhoid fever 3D representation. Credit: Rasi Bhadramani.
3. A historical poster warning against acting like Typhoid Mary
4. Dr George Soper in 1915
5. North Brother Island is now a sanctuary for water birds. Credit: Reivax.
6. Mary Mallon in a hospital bed
7. An old file card detailing results from tests on stool specimens from Mary Mallon
8. Book: Typhoid Mary, 1 May 2005 by Anthony Bourdain
