Mary Mallon Research Paper

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Mary Mallon, better known as “Typhoid Mary,” was born on the 23rd of September 1869 in the city of Cookstown, County Tyrone in Ireland. She migrated to the United States at the age of 15. She later died on the 11th of November 1938 in the North and South Brother Islands, New York City, NY. Before her death Mary Mallon allegedly caused multiple outbreaks of the typhoid fever hence the name “Typhoid Mary.” It was never documented that Mary acquired any primary or secondary education, but instead she was reported as a domestic servant who worked as a cook. Health officials believed that her job as a cook was Mallon’s source of infecting people. In the early 1900s she worked for about seven families in New York City, and within two weeks of her…show more content…
It could be because she never showed symptoms. Mallon was considered a “healthy carrier” (Leavitt, 2004); those who never experience symptoms despite being infected. She refused to give samples to run medical exams and so she was forced to be quarantined by several police officers. While in custody doctors found a nidus of the typhoid bacteria in Mallon’s gallbladder, but she refused to have it taken out because she didn’t believe she was a carrier of the disease even though she was determined by the New York City Health inspector to be a carrier. She continued to refuse to cooperate. This led to her being held in isolation for three years. Many disagreed with health officials about holding Mary against her will because she showed no trait of the disease, but in my opinion, Mallon herself must have known something was wrong due to her behavior; she continued to change her name, she continued to run whenever there was an outbreak in her area and she never reported herself. After the three years quarantine, she was released and given a different job as a laundress, but Mallon changed her name to Mary Brown and continued working as a cook. She worked in a number of kitchens in the next five years, all of which were soon infected with the typhoid disease. In 1915, Mary was responsible for starting another outbreak but luckily she was found and arrested and was returned to quarantine for the second time and this time she was quarantined for the rest of her life after refusing to have her gall bladder
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    Although it is rare in developed countries, there are many cases that are because of returning from Africa and Southeast Asia, which it is endemic in. In contrast, some people are not completely cured, and they become asymptomatic carriers such as Mary Mallon, which means that the human body maintains an infectious disease and displays no symptoms. An incubation of typhoid varies from three to sixteen days. Urine, feces, and unclean drinks and foods convey this disease. Additionally, typhoid is an infection

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