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How Typhoid Mary Left A Trail Of Scandal And Death
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52291327?fbclid=IwAR1ulNMJx_-0bwI1Z9ytRh2MKZiXN5rawptijyzUKnb22ODa_bZDOocQVYwNo-one ever thought we'd see a time when every news bulletin and website in the world would be filled with stories of a global health crisis and the scientific race to beat it.
But this is not the first time that epidemiology has captured the public imagination.
There was the "Spanish" flu epidemic of 1918-1920 that infected a quarter of the world's population and killed anywhere between 17 and 50 million people.
But even before that there was the extraordinary story of Typhoid Mary, a young Irish immigrant working as a cook in New York at the beginning of the 20th Century who left in her wake a trail of death, scandal and controversy.
~snip
Between 1900 and 1907 she cooked in the homes of seven families - the last one on Park Avenue - and in every one of them people fell sick or died. Each time she slipped away and found work elsewhere.
~snip
The family of one of the victims hired a researcher called George Soper and the diligent Mr Soper proved to be Mary's nemesis - even though when he first tracked her down she chased him out of her kitchen with a carving fork.
~snip
It's possible to sympathise with her refusal to believe that she could be transmitting a disease from which she never suffered herself. But Mr Soper had correctly identified her as an asymptomatic carrier of Typhoid fever.
~snip
She tried working in the lowlier job of laundry maid but eventually returned to cooking under a string of assumed names. She even, unforgivably, took a job in the kitchens of a hospital.
(My bold)
But this is not the first time that epidemiology has captured the public imagination.
There was the "Spanish" flu epidemic of 1918-1920 that infected a quarter of the world's population and killed anywhere between 17 and 50 million people.
But even before that there was the extraordinary story of Typhoid Mary, a young Irish immigrant working as a cook in New York at the beginning of the 20th Century who left in her wake a trail of death, scandal and controversy.
~snip
Between 1900 and 1907 she cooked in the homes of seven families - the last one on Park Avenue - and in every one of them people fell sick or died. Each time she slipped away and found work elsewhere.
~snip
The family of one of the victims hired a researcher called George Soper and the diligent Mr Soper proved to be Mary's nemesis - even though when he first tracked her down she chased him out of her kitchen with a carving fork.
~snip
It's possible to sympathise with her refusal to believe that she could be transmitting a disease from which she never suffered herself. But Mr Soper had correctly identified her as an asymptomatic carrier of Typhoid fever.
~snip
She tried working in the lowlier job of laundry maid but eventually returned to cooking under a string of assumed names. She even, unforgivably, took a job in the kitchens of a hospital.
(My bold)
~ More at link
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