23 September 2012
- MARY MARY, QUITE CONTAGIOUS -
Thursday,
September 23, 1869.
: 'Typhoid
Mary', the woman responsible for major outbreaks of typhoid in the New York
City area, is born.
'Typhoid Mary'
is the nickname of Mary Mallon, the woman who became responsible for a number
of outbreaks of typhoid in New York in the early twentieth century. Mary Mallon
was born on 23 September 1869, in Cookstown, Ireland. As a teenager she
emigrated to America, where she found work as a cook. Mallon was hired by New
York banker Charles Henry Warren to be the family's cook during a summer
holiday on Long Island. Shortly afterwards, one of Warren's daughters
contracted typhoid fever. Next, Mrs Warren and two maids became ill, followed
by the gardener and another of Warren's daughters. The owners of the holiday
property hired investigators to find the cause.
Investigator George Soper, a civil engineer with experience in typhoid fever
outbreaks, found that from 1900 to 1907, Mallon had worked at seven jobs in
which 22 people had become ill with typhoid fever. The case that Mallon was a
carrier was difficult to prove, as Mallon herself was perfectly healthy,
showing no signs whatsoever of the disease. However, after being forcibly taken
to the Willard Parker Hospital in New York, Mallon was shown to be harbouring
Typhoid bacilli. She was then quarantined for several years, only being
released on the condition that she no longer work as a cook.
Unable to find work that paid as well as a cook's wages, Typhoid Mary returned
to cooking five years later at the Sloane Maternity Hospital in Manhattan,
under the name of Mrs Brown. 25 people became ill with typhoid fever, and two
of them died. Mallon was tracked down, and quarantined for another 23 years.
Mallon eventually died on 11 November 1938.