Editing Mary Mallon (section)

=== Aftermath ===
Mallon's case became the first in which an asymptomatic carrier was discovered and isolated forcibly. The ethical and legal issues raised by her case are still discussed.{{sfn|Walzer Leavitt|1996|p=14}}{{sfn|Walzer Leavitt|Numbers|1997|p=559}}{{sfn|Women and Early Public Health|1995|pp=154–156}} Research has resulted in an estimate that Mallon had contaminated "at least one hundred and twenty two people, including five dead".{{sfn|Marineli|Tsoucalas|Karamanou|Androutsos|2013}} Other sources attribute at least three deaths to contact with Mallon, but because of health officials' inability to persuade her to cooperate, the exact number is not known. Some have estimated that contact with her may have caused 50 fatalities.<ref name=TheStraightDope/>

In a 2013 article in the ''Annals of Gastroenterology'', the authors concluded:

{{blockquote|The history of Mary Mallon, declared "unclean" like a leper, may give us some moral lessons on how to protect the ill and how we can be protected from illness{{nbsp}}[...] By the time she died New York health officials had identified more than 400 other healthy carriers of ''Salmonella typhi'', but no one else was forcibly confined or victimized as an "unwanted ill".{{sfn|Marineli|Tsoucalas|Karamanou|Androutsos|2013}}}}

Two scholarly sources combined to provide this conclusion:

{{blockquote|This case highlighted the problematic nature of the subject and the need for an enhanced medical and legal-social treatment model aimed at improving the status of disease carriers and limiting their impact on society.<ref>{{cite book|date=2011 |title=The Other Islands of New York City: A History and Guide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zRjMPZW4heMC&q=south+brother+island++Ruppert+++John+Gerosa%2C+president+of+the+Metropolitan+Roofing+Supply+Company%2C&pg=PA212 |publisher=The Countryman Press |isbn=9780881509458|edition=3rd }}</ref>}}

Other healthy typhoid carriers identified in the first quarter of the 20th century include Tony Labella, an Italian immigrant, presumed to have caused more than 100 cases (with five deaths); an [[Adirondack Mountains|Adirondack]] guide dubbed "Typhoid John", presumed to have infected 36 people (with two deaths); and Alphonse Cotils, a restaurateur and bakery owner.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/bugl/epidemiology.htm |title=Epidemiology |date=March 2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303230003/http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/bugl/epidemiology.htm |archive-date=March 3, 2016}}</ref>

The [[health technology]] of the era did not have a completely effective solution: there were not any antibiotics to fight the infection, and gallbladder removal was a dangerous, sometimes fatal operation. Some modern specialists claim that typhoid bacteria can become integrated in [[macrophage]]s and then reside in intestinal [[lymph node]]s or the [[spleen]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Singer |first=Emily |url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/why-typhoid-mary-never-got-sick-20160831/ |title=The Strange Case of Typhoid Mary |publisher=Quanta Magazine |date=August 16, 2016 |access-date=May 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200513160054/https://www.quantamagazine.org/why-typhoid-mary-never-got-sick-20160831/ |archive-date=May 13, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Monack |first=Denise |url=https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2013/08/scientists-get-a-handle-on-what-made-typhoid-marys-infectious-microbes-tick.html |title=Scientists get a handle on what made Typhoid mary's infectious microbes tick |publisher=Stanford University School of Medicine |date=August 14, 2013 |access-date=May 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523211146/https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2013/08/scientists-get-a-handle-on-what-made-typhoid-marys-infectious-microbes-tick.html |archive-date=May 23, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>