# Typhoid Mary **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 1, 2006, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typhoid-mary/359026 "2006-06-01T15:57:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![solkoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@solkoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solkoe)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typhoid-mary/359026/1 "2006-06-01T15:57:57Z")
Typhoid Mary spread typhoid to up to 200 people in her lifetime. How did Mary Mallon (Typhoid Mary) carry the bacteria without herself being affected? Did she carry this disease inside of her? Did her body tolerate and house this bacteria without being affected by it? ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typhoid-mary/359026/2 "2006-06-01T16:09:57Z")
> [@solkoe](#): > > Typhoid Mary spread typhoid to up to 200 people in her lifetime. > How did Mary Mallon (Typhoid Mary) carry the bacteria without herself being affected? Did she carry this disease inside of her? Did her body tolerate and house this bacteria without being affected by it? IIRC she had an asymptomatic _S. typhi_ infection of her gallbladder. The bacteria were happily reproducing in her gallbladder, and she shed bacteria everytime she went to the toilet, she probably wasn’t too clever when it came to washing her hands. There were no antibiotics so the only treatment they could have given her, had they even known how she was spreading it, was a cholecystectomy. Some people just don’t get sick when they’re infected with pathogens that make everybody else ill. These people carry the disease without feeling the ill effects, and because they don’t feel sick don’t seek treatment and so they can carry the pathogen around for a long time. Nowadays one would hope that a public health epidemiologist would track down an asymptomatic carrier during an outbreak by tracing back through the aymptomatic patients looking for commonalities. ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typhoid-mary/359026/3 "2006-06-01T16:11:01Z")
> [@Szlater](#): > > aymptomatic should read: symptomatic ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typhoid-mary/359026/4 "2006-06-01T16:14:38Z")
[Typhoid](http://history1900s.about.com/od/1900s/a/typhoidmary.htm) [Mary](http://www.snopes.com/medical/disease/typhoid.htm) (and [Cecil’s take on her)](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mtyphoidmary.html). ---
**Author:** ![misshannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3e96dc/32.png) [@misshannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misshannah)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typhoid-mary/359026/5 "2006-06-01T18:27:12Z")
And a [fairly interesting book](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1582341338/sr=8-10/qid=1149186278/ref=pd_bbs_10/103-1350656-1136660?%5Fencoding=UTF8) about her by Anthony Bourdain… ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typhoid-mary/359026/6 "2006-06-01T18:32:02Z")
> [@solkoe](#): > > Did her body tolerate and house this bacteria without being affected by it? _these bacteria_ or _this bacterium_ ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typhoid-mary/359026/7 "2006-06-02T00:10:48Z")
What other diseases cann Man “carry” without actually being sick? ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typhoid-mary/359026/8 "2006-06-02T04:38:25Z")
Almost anything infectious, including HIV. Most people get antibodies to the [glandular fever](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glandular_fever) (Infectious mononucleosis) virus during childhood but only a small minority actually suffer from it, for example. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typhoid-mary/359026/9 "2006-06-02T07:00:30Z")
location, location, location