Have You Considered Typhoid Mary?
Mary Mallon was a fine, buxom, Irish lass. She was born in Ireland in 1869 and immigrated to New York in 1884. She worked at menial jobs typical of 19th century immigrants, until 1906 when she was hired as a cook. Her new employer was Charles Henry Warren, a wealthy New York Banker. He had a summer home on Oyster Bay and Mary Mallon joined him and his family at this cool, airy spot at the northern tip of Long Island. Within a week of her arrival, 6 of the 11 people in the home had typhoid fever.
Typhoid is caused
by a bacillus that lives in the abdominal lymph nodes and spleen. There it lives, multiplies and sheds itself
into the intestines. Feces, contaminated
with the bacillus, enter the drinking water and food supply, infecting others. These infections expand like yeast in bread. One person infects two, which becomes four,
eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, 128, 256, 512, 1042… The fact that poor hygiene and lack of hand washing is also a way to contaminate people is obvious.
While it was first suspected that freshwater clams were the source of the infection, that idea was abandoned because not everyone had eaten the clams. A sanitary engineer named George Soper was hired by the family. He soon zeroed in on Mary Mallon. She showed mild symptoms of typhoid but continued to serve the family. While she refused to provide blood, feces or urine samples, Soper discovered that she had worked for eight families prior to her work on Oyster Bay, and seven of those families had experienced outbreaks of typhoid. Twenty-two people had become infected. Some had died.
What is more, in the manner that disease spreads, there was an outbreak of typhoid in New York City in 1907 which affected 3000 people. It is probable that Mary Mallon was the cause of this epidemic. Soper convinced the authorities that they needed to bring Mary in for testing. When the police arrived, Mary refused to cooperate. In fact, her resistance included lunging at Soper with a carving fork. What followed was a five hour game of run, hide and seek. Ms. Mallon was finally brought in, and her feces showed the presence of salmonella typhi bacillus.
Mary was quite healthy. She insisted that she had never been sick a day in her life, but she was a carrier of Salmonella typhi. Somehow, for reasons that were not understood, Mary could shelter this bacillus. The microorganisms lived and grew within her, and yet it did not attack her. The bacillus had found its perfect host. A living creature that would feed it, nurture it, spread it, but not succumb to its deathly effects. A living petri dish.
Mary was transferred to Riverside Hospital on North Brother Island where she was quarantined in a cottage. Fueled by funds from William Randolph Hearst, who’s papers loved the drama of “Typhoid Mary” she unsuccessfully sued to be released. In 1910 a new health commissioner released her on condition that she not work as a cook. The honor system didn’t work. Mary was sure she could not be a carrier, despite what the doctors told her. She promptly sought work, under the name Mary Brown, as a cook at Sloane Maternity in Manhattan. Within three months 25 doctors, nurses and staff at the hospital had come down with typhoid fever. Again, some died.
Once discovered, Mary Mallon was returned to quarantine on North Brother Island until her death in 1938. She never believed she was the source of typhoid fever.
Soper was the first to use the term “healthy carrier.” The press called her “Typhoid Mary.” We now hear talk of super spreaders and super spreader events. What we do know is that some people, for reasons that are probably a combination of genetic and environmental rarity, can act as vectors for deadly diseases while not succumbing to them. We ignore these facts at our own peril, but also to the peril of those who around us.
Don’t be a Typhoid Mary, and keep the faith.
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