Mary Mallon Essay

Mr. Gawande starts his literature on washing hands. He introduces two friends a microbiologist and an infectious disease specialist. Both work hard and diligently against the spread of diseases just like Semmelweis who is mentioned in the chapter. Something I learned, that not many realize, is that each year two million people acquire an infection while they are in the hospital. Mainly because the clinicians only wash their hands one-third to one-half as many times as they should. Semmelweis, mentioned earlier, concluded in 1847 that doctors themselves were to blame for childbed fever, which was the leading cause of

1. Understanding epidemiologic concepts of the chain of transmission of organisms from host to victim, describe how EH could have been infected.

Imagine that your doctor tells you that you have Ebola, but they can get the cure from you if you cooperate. Author Susan Campbell Bartoletti tells a similar tale in her novel, Terrible Typhoid Mary. In that literary piece, Mary Mallon is a carrier of Typhoid fever in the early 1900’s. As a described masculine Irish immigrant female, Mallon is constantly changing the house she works at because they suddenly get typhoid fever. Dr. George Soper is working on his germ carrier theory when he finds out about Mary Mallon, who seems to infect other, but has never been sick. After many attempts, Soper captures Mallon and puts her under isolation on an island hospital where she lives until her death in 1938. Despite the continuity of Dr. George Soper’s attempts at helping her, Mallon remains a villain due to Not listening to medical professionals, denying modern technology and not coming to terms with herself.

Schwan’s Sales Enterprise had the largest foodborne illness outbreak in history in Marshall, Minnesota around 1994 (Rubenstein, 1998). Cliff Viessman, a tanker truck operator transported a shipment of raw eggs that may have been infected with salmonella bacteria. The suspected contamination was unknown to Viessman’s employees. A foodborne illness is an infection or irritation of the gastrointestinal that caused by food or beverages that contain harmful bacteria, parasites, viruses, or chemicals. The company truck was parked and pressure washed to eliminate the bacteria. The next assignment was to transport ice cream mix to the Schwan’s plant (Rubenstein, 1998). Schwan’s company heard about the bacteria that may have affected their product and

Dr. John Snow was known as an intelligent physician who had a background with anesthesia advancements. He believed that cholera was a waterborne disease and that it was contaminated by the sewage. Snow’s goal was to convince others about the issue and stop it from spreading. His theory about the intestinal disease, in which was published in 1849 in an article, was laughed at and many doctors believed that his idea was “wrong” and they continued to believe that it was airborne. He wanted to prove many wrong and begin to further research and experiment the disease.

epidemics to childhood ills." (6) It was in this form that diseases were carried to

“Louis Pasteur – Germ Theory of Disease” Inventors About. Com. 2014. Retrieved on January 13 2014 from Biography.com: http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventors/a/Louis_Pasteur.htm

The first main point in the story Typhoid Fever is that literature can have everlasting impact on people’s lives. In the story, Patricia reads “The Highwayman” poem to Frankie. Because the children are not allowed to talk to each other, Patricia reads bits and pieces to Frankie at different times to avoid being caught. Frankie is awaiting the next part of the poem when he learns that Patricia has passed away. He is very disappointed because he never learnt the end of the poem. He keeps wondering and wondering until Sean learns the rest and recites it. If Sean had never took the time to learn the poem, Frankie would have most likely been living the rest of his life wondering how it ended.

The disease was first noted in 1786 by Caleb Hillier Parry 1755- 1822, physician from General Hospital, Bath, England. His account was published posthumously in 1825.

Enforcing public health has benefits for the health of the population at large. At the same time, there are many challenges with enforcing public health within a population include the unfair and sometimes unlawful treatment of individuals. The infamous story of Mary Mallon is one such example of this type of situation. Mary Mallon was an Irish immigrant, a woman, a chef, and a healthy carrier of typhoid (Leavitt, 2014). After it was learned that she was spreading typhus from the way she handled the food she served, she was incarcerated to obtain control over her behavior (Leavitt, 1992).

He was instead appointed chairman of the board that had been hurriedly formed to investigate the outbreak of typhoid that had reached epidemic proportions in most large army camps. Hundreds of new cases of typhoid were found every day and many were of fatal outcome; bad water was again thought to be the mode of transmission of the bacillus, which had recently been identified. The board found that water was of little importance as a vector of the disease, which, they reported, was rather spread by flies and contact with fecal material. In 1900 Reed was appointed head of an army board to investigate the causes of yellow fever, which had broken out among American troops in Cuba. In the United States yellow fever was an annual disease. It swept up the eastern seaboard and often spread to the Gulf states and up the Mississippi River valley. The places in which it occurred, the season of its occurrence, and the temperature coordinates of its spread were predictable and well known but not understood. No one knew what caused it, and the terror that accompanied it was equaled only by the misapprehension of its nature.The Alabama physician Josiah No had suggested that an insect, perhaps the mosquito, caused the disease but had little evidence, and in 1881 Carlos Finlay, working closely with the United States Yellow Fever Commission in Havana, suggested that yellow fever was transmitted by Culex fasciatus (now called Aëdes aegypti ). The question of the cause of yellow fever was nonetheless still a challenge when Reed took it Up. Upon arriving in Havana, Reed and his co-workers pursued further investigations of Sanarelli’s Bacillus icteroides and concluded that it was the hog-cholera virus. They then turned to the theory of the mosquito as the vector of yellow fever. Since there was no laboratory test for yellow fever, Finlay also aided them in the clinical

Throughout history until the 19th century, infectious diseases, epidemics, and pandemics were thought to be the manifestation of supernatural forces and little to nothing was truly effective in preventing or treating these devastating threats to society. It was only during the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment that the long-accepted realities of society were questioned and research was conducted based on science and reason that would forever change the world we live in (Kumar, 2007). The science of epidemiology was founded by John Snow’s identification of polluted public water well as the source of an 1854 cholera outbreak in London. Shortly thereafter germ theory began to emerge and science took off.

Typhoid fever is an intestinal illness, which can result in great suffering and even death. At first it was commonly confused with other fever causing illnesses until 1869 when William Jenner performed a careful analysis and found differences in the different types of typhus fevers. In this paper, I will discuss the bacteria that causes typhoid fever, discuss the signs, symptoms, method of transmission, past and current epidemics, and whether or not there has been a decrease in outbreaks in the past few years.

A local farmer brought his cow to veterinarian Herr Frederick Harmes to be examined. Harmes examined the bovine, tested for tuberculosis and sent the farmer back home with his cow still sick. The next spring the cow died from the disease. Dr. Harmes sent the digestive tract of the bovine to the Veterinary Unit in Dresden to be examined and studied to find out exactly what happened to the cow. Dr. H.A. Johne and Dr. L. Frothingham examined the tissues. They found thickened intestinal mucosa, enlarged mesenteric lymph nodes, an intestinal wall that contained an extremely large number of leukocytes and epithelioid cells. The doctors used an acid staining to see where bacteria were infected inside the organs. The bacteria they found closely resembled the same that causes tuberculosis. The doctors took a sample and injected the bacteria into a guinea pig, but the pig failed to contract the disease. The doctors concluded that the bacteria found in the cow is the same that causes tuberculosis in birds. The two doctors proposed the name of pseudotuberculous enteritis. (Johnes.org)

Although some of the some scientist back in 1719, Benjamin Martin wrote a book called A New Theory of Consumption, More Especially of Phthisis or Consumption of the Lungs, in this book he noted the likelihood of the tuberculosis contagion stating that close proximity to someone that has this disease causes the other person to acquired it (Reichman & Hershfield, 2000). Which in a way, Benjamin Martin, is right on point.