"The Most Dangerous Woman in America" - November 11, 2008

 

She was like a science-fiction story come to life: a woman who carried a highly-infectious disease, but who was herself immune (and who denied that she carried the disease at all).  The story of Mary Mallon, aka "Typhoid Mary," was far from fictitious, though, and ended with her death 70 years ago today. Other than her ability to make people violently ill, Mallon's story was nondescript. She emigrated from Ireland to the United States at the age of 15 in 1884, finding work as a cook in New York.  Her unintentional notoriety began when a family she was working for in Mamaroneck came down with typhoid. All of the members recovered (except for a laundress, who died), but no connection was made to Mary, who moved on to other jobs.  In 1901, another family she worked for was struck, and then another in 1906, and then three more.  The authorities suspected Mary, but imagine how you'd feel if a stranger came up, accused you of spreading disease, and demanded samples of your bodily fluids. You'd probably act like Mallon did and threaten that stranger with a carving fork. Eventually, the Department of Health had Mallon arrested and confined in isolation, which she fought vigorously until she was finally released in 1910, on the condition that she not work as a cook again.  Unable to make a living as a laundress, she soon returned to the kitchen (under the name "Mary Brown") at the Sloan Maternity Hospital, and in 1915, the cycle started again, as 25 people came down with typhoid.  After one of the women died, investigators discovered "Mary Brown's" real identity and sent her back into isolation for the remaining 23 years of her life. Although she never came down with the disease herself, her autopsy showed her to be as dangerous in death as in life, as her gallbladder was full of live typhoid bacteria. We don't want to start a panic, but the next time you eat out and the food tastes a little funny, you may want to make sure the cook seems perfectly healthy -- but even then, you never know ... Suggested Sites... The Most Dangerous Woman in America - PBS site about Mary Mallon, with a history of quarantines, her own letters, and a public health official's defense of her. Emerging Infectious Diseases - the Centers for Disease Control give you plenty of maladies to worry about. Foodborne Germs and Illnesses - lots of ways to become sick from eating. Snopes.com: Typhoid Mary - confirms and debunks the rumors about Mary Mallon. Wikipedia: Mary Mallon - brief biography of "the human culture tube" of typhoid bacteria.