30 YEARS IN QUARANTINE

The story dates back to early 20th century. There lived an Irish born girl who had migrated to United States. A real nice young lady with a jubilant nature. She worked as a maid but soon her skill of cooking finger-licking food would get noticed. She started working as a professional cook with affluent families of United States.

Everything was going on well for her but as Life would have it, things changed. The members of the family for whom she worked fell ill. They developed fever and diarrhoea, to an extent that one of the family members died. This young lady had to move on to the next household, a prosperous lawyer in the United States. It had just been a week when four of the servants in that house were also taken ill. 

It was surprising as if the illness had followed that lady. An investigator was called who blamed her for the cause of all the sickness but failed to prove it. The lady fled the city. 

Over the course of next seven years, the lady worked in eight different households. Everywhere she went, people developed fever and diarrhoea and some eventually died. She was chased out of every place until a day when she was caught and put into “Forced Quarantine” for three years (1907-1910). Three years… a pretty long time. Imagine the present generation being locked up for so long!

She was said to be spreading the illness. She was told not to work as a maid or cook in any household and finally released from quarantine in 1910. 

However, the lady did not pay heed to any advice. She not only worked as a cook but frequently changed locations. The disease spread wherever she went but she never believed that she was the cause. As per her, it was a normal outbreak.

She was caught again in 1915 and again “sentenced to forced quarantine”. She was given a lot many experimental medicines. She suffered nervous breakdown followed by a stroke six years prior to her death. She stayed in Quarantine for the rest of her life until she died in 1938. Nine people attended her funeral. 23 years of continuous quarantine… which was forced.

Now this my friends, is a true story. Story of Mary Mallon or as many doctors would famously know as ‘Typhoid Mary’. She was the first known asymptomatic carrier of a well studied disease in those times, Typhoid. Typhoid outbreak is a result of poor hygiene and sanitation and usually, spreads through oral intake of the pathogenic organism.

Our friend, Mary Mallon, was infected since the childhood, however, was just a carrier. Washing hands was not a very famous practice in those times and Miss Mary would continue to cook her delicacies with infected hands after loo. The disease kept on spreading, many got infected and some died, yet Miss Mary was never convinced till her last breath that she was the carrier of the disease.

A real sad story to have spent almost last 30 years of your life in a lockdown, as we know it now. Ethically, it was ridiculous. But at the same time it serves as a big lesson for the present generation in the prevalent times. 

It’s a thing about infectious diseases. You know they are out there, you know what not to do and you will still end up doing it and getting infected… and probably dying.

I consider Mary as innocent because she was ignorant. And her ignorance made her no less than a criminal. But here we are in the 21st generation with so many not so ignorant Maries roaming amongst us. We know the disease, we know the pathogen, we know the precautions, we know there are asymptomatic carriers and we still choose to ignore.  

And that is a well known fact about human nature- we don’t care unless it happens to us or someone we care about. Please remember- It might not affect you the way it will affect those you infect and those can very well be your loved ones. 

Vaccine or no vaccine, herd immunity or no immunity, let it sink deep inside that the world is not the same anymore and it will change for the worst if we roam around like ‘Covid Maries’.

Be Smart, Don’t be a Covid Mary!