Introduction

Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid,[1] is a common worldwide illness, transmitted by the ingestion of
food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella
typhi.[2][3] The bacteria then perforate through the intestinal wall and are phagocytosed by macrophages.
The organism is a Gram-negative short bacillus that is motile due to its peritrichous flagella. The
bacterium grows best at 37 °C/99 °F – human body temperature.This fever received various names, such
as gastric fever, abdominal typhus, infantile remittant fever, slow fever, nervous fever, pythogenic fever,
etc. The name of " typhoid " was given by Louis in 1829, as a derivative from typhus.The impact of this
disease falls sharply with the application of modern sanitation techniques.

History
Around 430–424 BC, a devastating plague, which some believe to have been typhoid fever, killed one third of the
population of Athens, including their leader Pericles. The balance of power shifted from Athens to Sparta, ending
the Golden Age of Pericles that had marked Athenian dominance in the ancient world. Ancient historian Thucydides
also contracted the disease, but he survived to write about the plague. His writings are the primary source on this
outbreak. The cause of the plague has long been disputed, with modern academics and medical scientists
considering epidemic typhus the most likely cause. However, a 2006 study detected DNA sequences similar to those
of the bacterium responsible for typhoid fever.[21] Other scientists have disputed the findings, citing serious
methodologic flaws in the dental pulp-derived DNA study.[22] The disease is most commonly transmitted through
poor hygiene habits and public sanitation conditions; during the period in question, the whole population of Attica
was besieged within the Long Walls and lived in tents.Mary Mallon ("Typhoid Mary") in a hospital bed
(foreground). She was forcibly quarantined as a carrier of typhoid fever in 1907 for three years and then again from
1915 until her death in 1938.In the late 19th century, typhoid fever mortality rate in Chicago averaged 65 per
100,000 people a year. The worst year was 1891, when the typhoid death rate was 174 per 100,000 people.[23] The
most notorious carrier of typhoid fever—but by no means the most destructive—was Mary Mallon, also known as
Typhoid Mary. In 1907, she became the first American carrier to be identified and traced. She was a cook in New
York. She is closely associated with fifty-three cases and three deaths.[24] Public health authorities told Mary to give
up working as a cook or have her gall bladder removed. Mary quit her job but returned later under a false name. She
was detained and quarantined after another typhoid outbreak. She died of pneumonia after 26 years in quarantine.In
1897, Almroth Edward Wright developed an effective vaccine. In 1909, Frederick F. Russell, a U.S. Army
physician, developed an American typhoid vaccine and two years later his vaccination program became the first in
which an entire army was immunized. It eliminated typhoid as a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the
U.S. military.Most developed countries saw declining rates of typhoid fever throughout the first half of the 20th
century due to vaccinations and advances in public sanitation and hygiene. Antibiotics were introduced in clinical
practice in 1942, greatly reducing mortality. Today, incidence of typhoid fever in developed countries is around 5
cases per 1,000,000 people per year.An outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2004–05 recorded more
than 42,000 cases and 214 deaths.[20]Typhoid fever was also known as suette milliaire in nineteenth-century France.

INTERVIEW WITH NATASSIA MALTHE ('Typhoid Mary'):

• How did you get hooked up with role of Typhoid Mary in “Elektra?”
I auditioned for the part. Basically when I saw it, I thought it would be really right for me.
Typhoid is a villain. She kills with her kiss and her touch. Basically, I seduce people.

• And you had a big kissing scene with Jennifer Garner that’s been the subject of a lot
of Internet buzz. What was filming the scene like?
It was okay. I had bronchitis.

• On the day you were supposed to be kissing Jennifer?

(Laughing). Yeah. I was not sick the whole entire time and then the very two days of the
kissing scene, I had bronchitis. So I used Listerine between every shot. But it was fun and
Jennifer was lovely to work with.
• What type of training did you have to do to prepare for this role?
I think if they bring Typhoid Mary back into the second one, I’ll definitely be doing martial
arts. But this one, we held it to her touch and her kisses, and her schizophrenia.