Typhoid Granny

There are still some 800 cases of typhoid in the U.S. every year, and in most instances no latter-day Typhoid Mary (1870-1938) can be called to account. The culprit is usually grandma. The indictment was made last week by Dr. Joseph E. Smadel of the National Institutes of Health as he got the Lasker Award for clinical research. Typhoid,

Dr. Smadel explained, was relatively common until half a century ago, and about 2% of the victims who recovered became carriers, harboring the bacilli in a mysterious quiescent phase. Some of those carriers eventually became grandmothers.

Most of the current typhoid cases, said Dr. Smadel. occur in groups within a single family after grandma has moved in to help care for a younger generation. If grandfather is with her, he is not likely to have much to do with food handling. But grandma takes over in the kitchen. If she is careless about bathroom cleanliness (the bacilli are transmitted from fecal matter only through food and drink), she gives the youngsters an unwelcome and unexpected gift of typhoid. Their acute illnesses can be cured with chloramphenicol (Chloromycetin). After this modern treatment so few become carriers, they create a negligible problem for the future. But grandma's long-standing carrier condition requires intensive and difficult treatment, which most of the elderly women refuse. It will take another generation. Dr. Smadel suggested, for typhoid in the U.S. to die out.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.