Typhoid Mary Case Study

Typhoid Mary (1915)
The case of Typhoid Mary sets the stage for how health professionals would take any steps to ensure the safety of society, even incubating one individual. Mary Mallon had a great passion for cooking and worked many places as their chef.1 Little did Mary know that her passion was causing harm to many. Mary was a typhoid carrier. One who may have typhoid fever may have a very high fever, feel weak, loss of appetite and for some may have a rash that are rose colored spots.2 The disease began in a home in Oyster Bay on Long Island’s north shore.1 Those who were living in the house had the symptoms of a fever for a long time, which is a characteristic of Typhoid. It also just so happens that Mary was the chef of that house
The case took place on September 25,1944 where an eighty-two-year-old man collapsed on a sidewalk.4 He was suffering with abdominal pains and his nose, lips, ears, and fingers were of the color sky-blue as stated from the article.4 The process of the medical detection in disease diagnosis was long and complex. The eight-two-year-old was admitted to the hospital and was diagnosed with cyanosis by the physician. The old man went through treatment for that but woke up with confusion. With that fact, the doctor diagnosed him with carbon-monoxide poisoning. The doctor was comfortable with that diagnosis till more victims came in with similar symptoms, except for some that are present in carbon-monoxide poisoning but not present in the victims. The epidemiologist proceeded to identify the cause of the disease in an investigative manner. The story of Eleven Blue Men was in a way a continuous mystery. The doctor then talked to the men and learned that they had all gotten sick after eating specifically oatmeal, rolls, and coffee.4 The doctor then thought it was food poisoning but the symptoms were not all there, which led to typhoid but again not all symptoms were not present, which finally led to the assumption of lead poisoning. The mindset now was around the thought of a drug causing this. None of the men were on drugs, but were heavy drinkers. They then concluded something must have been toxic that was in the oatmeal they had eaten. To confirm this assumption, they did blood test, an investigation of the restaurant, and lastly a chemical examination of the oatmeal. In conclusion, the oatmeal was the source of the eleven blue men. It contained saltpeter-sodium nitrite instead of sodium nitrate which can be perceived as salt, but sodium nitrite is a powerful poison.4 The way the epidemiologist had detected the