Typhoid Mary

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Typhoid Mary

Who is Typhoid Mary?

Mary Mallon (September 23, 1869 – November 11, 1938), also known as Typhoid Mary, was an Irish cook. She was the first person in the United States identified as an asymptomatic carrier of the pathogen associated with typhoid fever. She was presumed to have infected 51 people, three of whom died, throughout her career as a cook.
She was twice forcibly isolated by public health authorities and died after a total of nearly three decades in isolation.

Early life

Mary Mallon was born in 1869 in Cookstown, County Tyrone, in what is now Northern Ireland. She migrated to the United States in 1883 or 1884. She lived with her aunt and uncle for a time and later found work as a cook for affluent families.

Career

From 1900 to 1907, Mallon worked as a cook in the New York City area for seven families. In 1900, she worked in Mamaroneck, New York, where, within two weeks of her employment, residents developed typhoid fever. In 1901, she moved to Manhattan, where members of the family for whom she worked developed fevers and diarrhea, and the laundress died. Mallon then went to work for a lawyer and left after seven of the eight people in that household became ill.

Investigation

In late 1906, one family hired a typhoid researcher named George Soper to investigate. Soper published the results on June 15, 1907, in the Journal of the American Medical Association. He believed Mallon might be the source of the outbreak. He wrote:

It was found that the family changed cooks on August 4. This was about three weeks before the typhoid epidemic broke out. The new cook, Mallon, remained in the family only a short time and left about three weeks after the outbreak occurred. Mallon was described as an Irish woman about 40 years of age, tall, heavy, single. She seemed to be in perfect health.

Death

Mallon spent the rest of her life in quarantine at the Riverside Hospital. Six years before her death, she was paralyzed by a stroke. On November 11, 1938, she died of pneumonia at age 69. A post-mortem found evidence of live typhoid bacteria in her gallbladder. Other researchers have cited George Soper who wrote, "There was no autopsy" to assert a conspiracy to calm public opinion after her death. Mallon's body was cremated, and her ashes were buried at Saint Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx.

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