What is the story of typhoid Mary?

Question

The recent TB insident has a lot of people talking about typhoid Mary. Who was she and what did she do?

Answer 1

Mary Mallon (September 23, 1869 – November 11, 1938), also known as Typhoid Mary, was the first person in the United States to be identified as a healthy carrier of typhoid fever. Over the course of her career as a cook, she infected 47 people, three of whom died from the disease. Her fame is in part due to her vehement denial of her own role in causing the disease, together with her refusal to cease working as a cook. She was forcibly quarantined twice by public health authorities and died in quarantine.

Answer 2

Story Of Typhoid Mary

Answer 3

Typhoid Mary lived in the early 1900's. And the date is very important in this case. Antibiotics had not been invented and most of the medical tools and tests with which we are familiar did not exist. Getting a disease back then could very easily be a death sentance.

The bacterium responsible for typhoid can be passed from person to person through food... particularly if the cook is infected and a little careless with hygeine. If a person survives an attack of typhoid, it is possible for them to become a carrier of the disease - they can make other people sick but show no signs of it themselves.

All of these circumstances combine in the person of 'Typhoid' Mary Mallon.

Mary worked as a cook for seven years in New York, during which time she infected at least 22 people with typhoid, killing one of them. Half her family was hospitalized from typhoid and households would often fall ill shortly after she arrived. It seems pretty easy to connect the dots now after the fact, but remember this happened over many years.

She was discovered to be the cause of all this when a landlord hired an investigator to investigate the illnesses in his building. She was told that she was possibly endangering other people but simply refused to believe it. On some occasions she would go so far as to lock herself in another room until her accusers went away. She was even offered a substantial amount of money (the proceeds from the sale of a book about her disease-mongering) to stop exposing others, but she adamantly refused to take it or change her lifestyle in any way.

Forced into action, New York City quarantined her by force. She was kept for three years in isolation, and was finally released only when she promised not to work with food at all in the future.

On her part, this was the sheerest of lies. Knowing the authorities were after her, she assumed a false name and went right back to cooking, infecting 25 more people (in a hospital, no less) and killing two of them.

In light of this stubborn refusal to obey the conditions of her release, she was re-quarantined for life. She spent the next 23 years in quarantine before dying of a stroke. An autopsy revealed that she STILL had infectious typhoid bacteria and could still have infected more people.

Even then she was famous, and has now become an icon for a person too mulish to change their ways in even the slightest degree to avoid speading disease and even killing other people.

Answer 4

Typhoid Mary was a cook, she was infected with Typhoid and gave it to people that she served food too. When they found out she was responsible for the outbreak, they banned her from working in a kitchen, and then she started working in personal homes.

Answer 5

Typhoid Mary, or Mary Mallon was the first person identified with the disease in the US. She was also a cook, which meant she infected 40+ people with typhoid.

She denied she had the disease, which contributed to her notoriety and ability to infect people, however she was forcibly quarantined and died there.

Anthony Bourdain has a historical novel about her if you are interested in further details.

Answer 6

She was a servant, and her real name was Mary. I don't recall her last name. Unfortunately, in several families she worked for, people came down with typhoid fever. They thought she was a carrier and locked her away for years. She never got the disease. I think this happened in New York at the turn of the last century.

Answer 7

She was a cook who was a carrier of typhoid. She didnt show any symptoms though. When she would cook for families she would spread typhoid to them and some of them would die. she moved around a lot but they found her. She was put in jail because she refused to do anything to keep herself from spreading the disease (namely cooking for other people).

Answer 8

Mary Mallon :)

Answer 9

Two totally different diseases.

Here is Mary's story:

http://history1900s.about.com/od/1900s/a/typhoidmary.htm

Answer 10

search on yahoo.com