Everybody Loves Typhoid, The story of Mary MallonMary Mallon was an Irish immigrant who moved to the

Everybody Loves Typhoid, The story of Mary MallonMary Mallon was an Irish immigrant who moved to the United States (New York City) in 1884.  Upon arriving in America, she took up a career as a cook.  Within two weeks of her arrival several people became ill with typhoid fever.  Apparently her food must have been pretty good, however, because after a while wealthy families began to hire her as a private live in cook.  A strange coincidence would occur everywhere she went, families and groups she cooked for would always be stricken with typhoid fever.  Despite the odd happenings, Mary Mallon took it as nothing more than an odd coincidence and continued on with her work.By 1906 many families who employed Mary Mallon hired private investigators to determine what was happening.  The odd and seemingly random outbreaks of typhoid also caught the eye of the newly created New York Board of Health, who conducted a thorough medical investigation.  All investigations found that the illnesses struck soon after Mallon was employed.  The NY Board of Health demanded that Mallon submit urine and fecal samples for testing, an order that Mallon bluntly refused.  In 1908 Mary Mallon was taken into custody and quarantined.Urine and stool samples were forcibly taken, and tests proved that Mallon was a carrier of typhoid fever.  Though immune to the disease, it was discovered that her gallbladder was a typhoid paradise.  Under further observation and questioning it was also discovered that Mary had the bad habit of not washing her hands after making wee’s and poopies.  The detention and study of Mary Mallon would cause Journal of the American Medical Association to nickname her “Typhoid Mary” a nickname which grew popular with the media.The NY Board of Health ordered that Mary could not be released unless she had her gallbladder removed.  Mallon refused and stubbornly maintained that she was not diseased.  A media storm broke out, painting Mary as an innocent woman who was being illegally detained by corrupt authorities.  Three years later, under pressure from the media, Mary Mallon was released on the agreement that she would practice better hygiene and never work in food service again.Around the beginning of World War I random typhoid epidemics again broke out all over New York City.  In 1915 the worst epidemic occurred at the Sloane Hospital for Women leading to 25 illnesses and two deaths.  City Health investigators discovered that the hospital cook was an Irish woman named Mary Brown A.K.A. Mary Mallon.  Once again she was taken into custody by the board of health and quarantined.  This time, however, they had no intention of letting her go.  She was held at a medical clinic for the rest of her life until her death in 1938.At least three deaths were confirmed to be caused by Typhoid Mary, but it is unknown how many more could have been killed by her cooking.  It is also unknown how many hundreds of people were infected. -- source link

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