sst-0551

sst-0551
In 1906 in New York City, the Warren family got sick with the disease called “typhoid fever”. Typhoid fever was a scary disease without a cure. First a person would feel tired and feverish, and then they would have muscle aches, weight loss, rash and a swollen abdomen. Quite often typhoid fever would lead to death. A government worker came to the Warren home to investigate and see where the typhoid fever could have come from. As the worker investigated, he took notice of the cook Mary Mallon. Mallon had worked as a cook for many families in the early 1900s and each of them had contracted typhoid fever. It was soon realized that Mary Mallon was an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever. That meant that she had the disease all the time but she never felt any symptoms of it. She was spreading the disease without even knowing it. Mallon was given the nickname Typhoid Mary. Doctors and scientists were very intrigued by Mallon and wanted to examine her, but she would always refuse. There was even an instance that she chased away doctors with a carving fork. Eventually she was arrested and sent to a prison. Doctors were finally able to determine that her gallbladder was where the
dangerous bacteria was and they offered to remove it, but she refused. Mallon was sent to live in a quarantine hospital on North Brother Island in New York. She lived there for three years before she was released. At that point she had to agree to change occupations and not be a cook anymore. Mallon did that for a time but later changed her name to Mary Brown and began working as a cook again. Of course, families became sick and Typhoid Mary was to blame. Mallon kept running from authorities as she went from job to job and people became sick. She was finally stopped after she started an outbreak at the Sloane Hospital for Women in New York City. Mallon was quarantined for the remainder of her life. When she died in 1938, an autopsy revealed that she did in fact have live a typhoid bacteria in her gallbladder. Typhoid Maryls body was cremated and her remains were buried at the St. Raymondls Cemetery in the Bronx.
In 1906, Mary Mallon, known as “Typhoid Mary,” unknowingly spread typhoid fever while working as a cook in New York City, despite being asymptomatic. Her connection to numerous outbreaks led to her arrest and quarantine. After being released, she resumed cooking, triggering more illnesses, until finally being quarantined for life after a severe outbreak. She died in 1938, still carrying the bacteria.
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