<getting sick to prevent getting sick>
Nova last night:
pbs.org
The woman they got to play Mary did a
good job, and it was fairly entertaining.
The photos of NYC squalor were probably
the most interesting.
But I would like to have heard a little
about how this woman (and many others) could
carry the typhoid bacteria in their gut for
so long and remain disease free. You wouldn't
think the bacteria would fit very well
into an ecological niche in the gut.
NARRATOR: In most cases of typhoid fever, the body is host to a microbial battle where there is a clear winner. If the bacteria win, the patient dies; if the immune system wins, the typhoid bacteria die. But in the case of a healthy carrier, there is no clear winner. The immune system protects the body from infection, but the bacteria continue to live. Mary, with no symptoms at all, is as contagious as someone sick with the disease.
Not much of an explanation, but easy to find
more stuff on the web... And I rather doubt Mary was
as contagious as somebody running a fever...
NARRATOR: Mary goes into court with some ammunition of her own. Using her boyfriend Briehof as a courier, she has been sending specimens for months to the Ferguson Laboratory in Manhattan. The results contradict the Health Department's.
MARY MALLON: The Health Department report always comes back stating that typhus bacilli have been found. But my specialist, who is the head of his profession, reports that he has found none. |
