The Third Angel Sounded | The Degenerate Art of Nick Kushner

HISTORY OF TYPHOID MARY

"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 is known to have infected 53 people, three of whom died from the disease. Her notoriety is in part due to her vehement denial of her own role in spreading 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. It is possible that she was born with the disease, as her mother had typhoid fever during her pregnancy.

"After spending the rest of her life exiled in quarantine, Mallon died on November 11, 1938 at the age of 69. The cause of death was pneumonia, coming six years after a stroke had left her paralyzed. She was still infectious on the day she died: an autopsy found evidence of live typhoid bacteria in her gallbladder. Her body was subsequently cremated and the ashes buried at Saint Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx.

"Mallon's unique status as the first healthy typhoid carrier to be identified by medical science meant there was no pre-existing policy providing guidelines on how to handle the situation. Many of the problems surrounding her case stemmed from Mallon's own vehement denial that she was infected with typhoid. She refused to acknowledge any connection between her working as a cook and people falling seriously ill, despite this scenario occurring repeatedly. Though presented with medical evidence of her infection, Mallon maintained that she was perfectly healthy, had never had typhoid fever, and therefore could not possibly be the culprit. Given Mallon's refusal to heed doctors' warnings that she was a typhoid carrier, her continual pursuit of employment in kitchens, the misery inflicted on her many victims, and her failure to comply with the conditions of her initial release from quarantine, public health authorities determined that permanent quarantine was the only way to prevent Mallon from causing significant future typhoid outbreaks."

...WIKIPEDIA ENTRY ON MARY MALLON