Mary Mallon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the comicbook character Typhoid Mary, see Typhoid Mary (comics)
Mary Mallon (September 23, 1869 – November 11, 1938), also known as Typhoid Mary, was an Irish immigrant who was the first identified healthy carrier of typhoid in the United States.
Contents |
[edit] Birth and emigration
Mallon was born in Cookstown, County Tyrone, Ireland in 1869 and immigrated to the United States alone in 1883.
[edit] Cook
Mallon worked as a cook in the New York City area between 1900 and 1907. During this part of her working career, she infected 22 people with the disease, of whom one died. Mary was a cook in a house in Mamaroneck, New York, for less than two weeks in the year 1900 when the residents came down with typhoid. She moved to Manhattan in 1901, and members of that family developed fevers and diarrhea, and the laundress died. She then went to work for a lawyer, until seven of the eight household members developed typhoid. Mary spent months helping to care for the people she made sick, but her care further spread the disease through the household. In 1904, she took a position on Long Island. Within two weeks, four of ten family members were hospitalized with typhoid. She changed employment again, and three more households were infected. Often, the disease was transmitted by a signature dessert she prepared: peaches and ice cream.
[edit] Typhoid
George Soper was a sanitary engineer hired by the landlord of a house where Mary had worked. After careful investigation, he identified Mary as a possible carrier. He approached her with the news that she was possibly spreading typhoid. She violently rejected his request for urine and stool samples, and Soper left, later publishing his findings in the June 15, 1907 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Soper brought a doctor with him on his next contact with Mallon, but was again turned away.
Mallon's denials that she was a carrier were based in part on the diagnosis of a reputable chemist; he found she was not harboring the germs. While she was merely in temporary remission, the diagnosis contributed to Mallon's refusal to accept the allegations. Moreover, when Soper first told her she was a carrier, the concept that a person could spread disease and remain healthy was not well known. Finally, George Soper was generally tactless in his dealings with her. (During a later encounter in the hospital, he told Mallon he would write a book about her — and give her all the royalties. She got up and locked herself in the bathroom until he left.)
[edit] Quarantine
The New York City Health Department sent Dr. Sara Josephine Baker to talk to Mallon, but, "by that time she was convinced that the law was wantonly persecuting her when she had done nothing wrong." [1]
A few days later, Baker arrived at her place of work with several police officers and took her into custody. The New York City health inspector investigated and found her to be a carrier. She was isolated for three years at a hospital located on North Brother Island, and then released on the condition she would not work with food. However, she assumed the pseudonym "Mary Brown", returned to cooking, and in 1915 infected 25 people while working as a cook at New York's Sloan Hospital; two of those infected died. Public health authorities again seized her and confined Mary Mallon in quarantine for life. She became something of a celebrity, and was interviewed by journalists who were forbidden to accept as much as a glass of water from her. Later in life, she was allowed to work in the island's laboratory as a technician.
[edit] Death
Mallon died on November 11, 1938 at the age of 69 due to pneumonia (not typhoid) after a stroke six years earlier which left her paralyzed.[2] However, an autopsy found evidence of live typhoid bacteria in her gallbladder. Her body was cremated in Saint Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx.
[edit] Legacy
Part of the problems Mary had stemmed from her vehement denial of the situation. She maintained that she was healthy and had never had typhoid fever. Historians say it also stemmed from the prejudice that existed against working-class Irish immigrants at the time. Today, a Typhoid Mary is a generic term for a carrier of a dangerous disease who is a danger to the public because they refuse to take appropriate precautions.
[edit] Popular Culture
- In Chris Elliot's book, The Shroud of the Thwacker, Elliot is sent back in time, suspected to be the Thwacker (serial killer). He is given cover by Mary Mallon because she is attracted to him. When the police come to arrest her (Elliot believes it is himself the police are coming for) she "forcefully pulled me (Elliot) to her and planted a wet slobbering kiss on my lips. I tried to pull away but she was too strong for me...She took a breath and coughed in my face and then dove into my mouth again..." Elliot later remembers the importance of Mary Mallon, when he feels symptoms of typhoid coming on. He quickly kills the infection with some amoxicillin he had left in his coat pocket before (after?) traveling back in time.
- Typhoid Mary is the name of a Marvel comic book villain, though her powers and origin have nothing to do with the historical figure.
- Mark St. Germain wrote a play about Mallon called A Plague of Angels.
- God Dethroned, a Dutch death-metal band, has a song called "Typhoid Mary" on their 2006 album, "The Toxic Touch," and several songs on that album that refer to her.
- In the original Star Trek series episode #75, The Way to Eden, Dr. Severin, a brilliant but insane leader of a group of renegade "space hippies," is an unafflicted carrier of a deadly civilization-caused disease, "Synthococcus novae." Dr. McCoy explains to Captain Kirk, "Remember your ancient Earth history? Typhoid Mary? He's a carrier, spreads the disease to others."
[edit] Further reading
- Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical, Anthony Bourdain, Bloomsbury, New York, 2001, hardcover, 148 pages, ISBN 1-58234-133-8
- Typhoid Mary, Captive to the Public's Health, Judith Walzer Leavitt, Beacon Press, Boston, 1996, hardcover, 331 pages, ISBN 0-8070-2102-4
- Quarantine: The Story of Typhoid Mary, Mercedes Graf, Vantage Press, New York, 1998, paperback, 133 pages, ISBN 0-533-12512-X
- Fighting for Life, Sara Josephine Baker, Macmillan Press, New York 1939, ISBN 0-405-05945-0 (1974 ed), ISBN 0-88275-611-7 (1980 ed)
- The Ballad of Typhoid Mary, J.F. Federspiel [translated by Joel Agee], Ballantine Press, New York, 1985
