Typhoid Mary

A person, especially a woman, who spreads misery or ill fortune to other people or endeavors. A reference to the epithet of Mary Malon, a cook who was thought to have infected 22 people with typhoid fever from 1900–1907 as an asymptomatic carrier. You treat me like I'm some kind of Typhoid Mary, but it's your own mismanagement that has brought ruin to this farm. After yet another company where she worked went bankrupt, Janet began to feel like something of a Typhoid Mary.

typhoid Mary

A carrier or spreader of misfortune, as in I swear he's a typhoid Mary; everything at the office has gone wrong since he was hired . This expression alludes to a real person, Mary Manson, who died in 1938. An Irish-born servant, she transmitted typhoid fever to others and was referred to as "typhoid Mary" from the early 1900s. The term was broadened to other carriers of calamity in the mid-1900s.

Typhoid Mary

You can describe someone as Typhoid Mary if they bring bad luck or harm to other people. After the relationship ended, she became a Typhoid Mary, spoiling the romantic lives of everyone around her. Note: Typhoid Mary was a cook who spread the disease typhoid to several hospitals that she worked in, though she never became ill herself.

See also: Mary

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

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References in periodicals archive

Indeed the outbreak of the epidemic disease in several urban and rural parts of Sindh had raised concern amongst health experts since the bacteria that causes typhoid had become resistant to antibiotics.

Vaccination drive against typhoid

Why do we have such a towering typhoid patient population?

Taking on typhoid

The first typhoid outbreak was reported in Hyderabad in 2016.

Vaccination drive against typhoid launched in Lyari

Mary Mallon was an Irish-American cook who was the first identified asymptomatic carrier of the pathogen associated with typhoid fever.

Past in Perspective

The eruption of XDR Typhoid virus first in Karachi is also the result of the use of unsafe water, he claimed while dispelling impression that Hyderabad is the base of XDR Typhoid virus.

Unsafe water is the major reason of waterborne diseases: Dr. Bikharam Ram

Typhoid fever is the sixth most common cause of death in Pakistan and its prevalence in our country is estimated to be 412 cases per 100,000 population per year3,4.

PRESCRIPTION PATTERNS OF GENERAL PRACTITIONERS IN THE TREATMENT OF TYPHOID FEVER IN RAWALPINDI AND ISLAMABAD

The Commissioner issued these directives while presiding over a meeting here at Shahbaz Hall regarding prevention of XDR Typhoid virus.

Commissioner directs to launch mass awareness campaign to prevent XDR Typhoid

Firstly, there is rampant antibiotic overuse in Pakistan, due to overprescription by physicians, and self-medication by the public, which is facilitated by easy over-the-counter availability of these drugs.3 Secondly, many areas have inadequate sanitation and sewage disposal systems; this, compounded by illiteracy, overcrowding and mass rural-urban migration, favors the spread of fecal-orally transmitted illnesses including typhoid fever.

Drug-resistant typhoid epidemic in Pakistan highlights shortcomings of the public health infrastructure

Previous typhoid outbreaks in Harare have been associated with municipal water shortages and increased use of contaminated boreholes and shallow wells (2-5).

Typhoid Fever Outbreak--Harare, Zimbabwe, October 2017-February 2018

Talking to private news channel, Senior Physician said that vaccines against typhoid should be recommended for the people, especially school-going children who were more susceptible to the disease.

Expert call for mass awareness against typhoid

In Qatar, no epidemiologic data on typhoid fever have been available.

Epidemiological and Clinical Features of Salmonella Typhi Infection Among Adult Patients in Qatar: A Hospital-based Study

But firm steps taken to provide clean water and adequate sewage system has dramatically reduced the incidence in Europe and other developed parts of the world.5 Vaccine against typhoid fever is available but even in the presence of effective vaccines, these are not incorporated in regular vaccination program.6 The commonly encountered complications are pertaining to intestinal system such as intestinal hemorrhage, intestinal perforation, central nervous system (CNS) manifestation include encephalopathy and ataxia, pulmonary involvement with pneumonia and reactive arthritis in bones and joints.7-12 In our experience, substantial number of cases with enteric fever have delayed presentation and most are inadequately treated resulting in admission with different complications.

Spectrum of complications in childhood Enteric Fever as reported in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Summary: Travellers advised to take extra care with food and water and get a typhoid vaccination

US warns Pakistan against drug-resistant typhoid fever outbreak

Last week the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) announced one new imported case of typhoid fever in an over 20-year-old female who resides in northern Taiwan.

Taiwan CDC urges people to avoid raw food and contaminated beverages to ward off typhoid fever