Typhoid Mary Read Online Free PDF Page A

developed a bad cough, hoarseness, rampaging diarrhea or constipation. Frequently adding to their discomfort and misery were skin rashes, inflammation, and tenderness in the abdomen. Until antibiotics hit the market in the late 1940s, about 10 per cent of typhoid sufferers died from the disease. Even after antibiotics, about 1 per cent still never recovered and eventually succumbed. As late as 1997, there were 17 million cases of typhoid reported worldwide, with about 600,000 deaths resulting.
         Even today, in underdeveloped countries like Vietnam and Mexico, where antibiotics at first seemed to be working wonders, 75 per cent of typhoid cases are now said to be drug-resistant.
         Typhoid is an infectious disease caused by a bacillus called salmonella typhi . Simply put, typhoid fever is transmitted by food and water that has been contaminated with human feces or urine. Polluted water is the most common source of infection. When water from toilets and outhouses drains into water used for bathing and drinking, you start seeing cases of typhoid. Shellfish such as clams, mussels, and oysters which have been taken from contaminated beds can give you typhoid. Likewise, dairy products which have had close encounters with sewage, can be – and have been – linked with the spread of the disease.
         And, of course, people can give you typhoid, as long as the bacteria exists in their systems. For most people sick with typhoid, this means that for the week prior to their being bedridden (during which time they probably have not yet been diagnosed), until about a week after, they are infectious. Many (about 10 per cent) will continue to exude bacteria in their stools for about three months, and about 2 to 5 per cent will become permanent carriers, the bacteria settling comfortably into their gallbladders and digestive tracts like rent-controlled pensioners. This last statistic is important, because the beleaguered Mary Mallon was believed to be one of these unfortunate few – a carrier for life, a one-woman bacteria manufacturing machine, an endless supply of very bad things.
         If you want your city, town, or prefecture to remain free of typhoid, experts recommend that you endeavor mightily to protect and chlorinate the water supply – basically keeping it sewage-free. It is suggested that human waste be disposed of in a safe and sanitary manner and that latrines be kept fly-proof. And you don’t want typhoid carriers handling your food. Particularly raw food.
         In Mary’s time, especially in the years she was coming up and learning her trade, indoor plumbing was a fairly recent development – and in rural areas, decidedly rare. Even the idea of bathing regularly was a new, and pretty bold, concept.
         Our colonial forefathers, many of whom proudly boasted of bathing only once a year , must have stank like musk-oxen, and the sanitary, or more accurately, the unsanitary grooming habits of generations of Americans and Europeans explains a lot about their behavior and accouterments. (That the French would take the lead in perfume manufacture should come as no surprise.) High collars, make-up, wigs, beauty marks – many of the fashion choices of much earlier days were developed as much for fashion as to cover up dirt-streaked and smallpox-scarred necks, syphilis-ravaged faces, unspeakably greasy and unpleasant hair, and rank odor. Not too much earlier than Mary’s time, the ‘Sunday bath’ was considered the height of sartorial extravagance, something to boast about. As the turn of the century approached, people still didn’t much like to bathe. They didn’t, for the most part, like water. Water, it was believed, admittedly with some reason, made you sick. It gave you typhoid, cholera, fevers – all sorts of bad and mysterious stuff. Better to grease yourself up and sew yourself into your long-johns for the winter, as many frontiersmen did, than risk getting chilled and possibly ill. Better