Mary Mallon

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For the comicbook character Typhoid Mary, see Typhoid Mary (comics)
Typhoid Mary in a 1909 newspaper illustration
Typhoid Mary in a 1909 newspaper illustration

Mary Mallon (September 23, 1869 – November 11, 1938), also known as Typhoid Mary, was the first person in the United States to be identified as a healthy carrier of typhoid fever. Over the course of her career as a cook, she infected 47 people, three of whom died from the disease. Her fame is in part due to her vehement denial of her own role in causing the disease, together with her refusal to cease working as a cook. She was forcibly quarantined twice by public health authorities and died in quarantine.


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[edit] Birth and emigration

Mallon was born in Cookstown, County Tyrone, Ireland in 1869 and emigrated between 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 time, she infected 22 people with typhoid fever, one of whom died. She had been working in a house in Mamaroneck, New York for less than two weeks when the residents came down with typhoid. She moved to Manhattan in 1901 and members of the family for whom she worked 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 in Long Island. Within two weeks, six out of eleven 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] Investigation

Sanitary worker George Soper was hired by the landlord of a house where Mary had worked to investigate the typhoid outbreak there. After careful investigation, he identified Mary as a possible carrier of the disease.

People catch typhoid fever after ingesting water or food which has been contaminated during handling by a human carrier. The human carrier is usually a healthy person who has survived a previous episode of typhoid fever but in whom the typhoid bacteria have been able to survive without causing further symptoms. Carriers continue to excrete the bacteria in their feces and urine and poor hygiene can lead to its introduction into food and water.

When Soper approached Mallon with the news that she was possibly spreading typhoid, she violently rejected his request for urine and stool samples. Soper left and later published his findings in the June 15, 1907 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. On his next contact with her, he brought a doctor with him, but was again turned away. Mallon's denials that she was a carrier were based in part on the diagnosis of a reputable chemist who had found she was not harboring the bacteria (Some believe that she was in temporary remission when the chemist tested her). 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 may have been somewhat tactless in his dealings with her. (During a later encounter in the hospital, he told Mary 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

Mary Mallon in a hospital bed during her first quarantine
Mary Mallon in a hospital bed during her first quarantine

The New York City Health Department sent Dr. Sara Josephine Baker to talk to Mary, but "by that time she was convinced that the law was wrongly persecuting her when she had done nothing wrong." [1]

A few days later, Baker arrived at Mary's 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.
  • Hirohiko Araki, a popular japanese mangaka famous for his saga JoJo's Bizarre Adventure made Mary Mallon the protagonist of an episode of his volume Bizarre lives of eccentric people a volume dedicated to peculiar individuals like Sarah Winchester and Yoshio Kou.
  • 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."
  • Typhoid Mary is also the name of a rock band from Atlanta, Georgia. The band was recently interviewed by Mark Hoppus on the himynameismark[3] podcast (#29).
  • In Star Trek Voyager episode Infinite Regress, the doctor refers to an alien species that infected a Borg vessel with a virus that destroyed the vessel as a "typhoid mary".

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

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