Your long wait is finally over – the season four premiere of This Podcast Will Kill You has arrived! And to mark the special occasion, we’re taking on a topic that is both classic TPWKY material as well as enormously relevant to current discussions in public health. Typhoid fever has been the cause of untold death and devastation throughout human history, and despite our advancements in both treatment and prevention of the disease, it continues to wreak havoc on millions of people around the world every year. This week, we take a trip through the terror of typhoid, starting by tracing the journey this bacterium makes through your body before taking a look at the long history of typhoid in human populations. And what story of typhoid would be complete without Typhoid Mary? We examine the plight of Mary Mallon in the context of today’s COVID-19 pandemic and discuss the tension that often arises between individual and community rights in matters of public health. Finally, we wrap things up with a look at the current status of typhoid fever around the world (spoilers: it’s pretty terrible) as well as some promising developments on the horizon (spoilers: okay, it might not all be bad!).
We are so excited to be back with you this season, coming through your headphones with some casual chat about diseases throughout human history! As always, we are happy to hear from you about what you’d like us to cover, so send any suggestions through our website contact form. For your TPWKY merch needs, check out the sweet offerings on our shop’s page. And for extra reading, you can find references for each episode on the episode page or check out our bookshop.org affiliate page or our Goodreads list.
| History | Biology |
| Adler, Richard, and Elise Mara. Typhoid fever: a history. McFarland, 2016. | Uzzau, S., Brown, D. J., Wallis, T., Rubino, S., Leori, G., Bernard, S., … & Olsen, J. E. (2000). Host adapted serotypes of Salmonella enterica. Epidemiology & Infection, 125(2), 229-255. |
| Bourdain, Anthony. Typhoid Mary: an urban historical. Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2001. | Everest, P., Wain, J., Roberts, M., Rook, G., & Dougan, G. (2001). The molecular mechanisms of severe typhoid fever. Trends in microbiology, 9(7), 316–320. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0966-842x(01)02067-4 |
| Leavitt, Judith Walzer. Typhoid Mary: captive to the public’s health. Beacon Press, 1996. | Britto, C., Pollard, A. J., Voysey, M., & Blohmke, C. J. (2017). An appraisal of the clinical features of pediatric enteric fever: systematic review and meta-analysis of the age-stratified disease occurrence. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 64(11), 1604-1611. |
| Kiple, Kenneth F., and H. Micheal Tarver. The Cambridge world history of human disease. Cambridge University Press, 1993. | Gonzalez-Escobedo, G., Marshall, J. M., & Gunn, J. S. (2011). Chronic and acute infection of the gall bladder by Salmonella Typhi: understanding the carrier state. Nature reviews. Microbiology, 9(1), 9–14. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro2490 |
| Cirillo VJ. Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930): Physician during the typhoid epidemic in the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902). Journal of Medical Biography. 2014;22(1):2-8. doi:10.1177/0967772013493239 | Crump, J. A., Luby, S. P., & Mintz, E. D. (2004). The global burden of typhoid fever. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 82(5), 346–353. |
| Cirillo, Vincent J. “Fever and reform: the typhoid epidemic in the Spanish-American War.” Journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences 55.4 (2000): 363-397. | Buckle, G. C., Walker, C. L., & Black, R. E. (2012). Typhoid fever and paratyphoid fever: Systematic review to estimate global morbidity and mortality for 2010. Journal of global health, 2(1), 010401. https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.02.010401 |
| Cirillo, Vincent J. “” Winged sponges”: houseflies as carriers of typhoid fever in 19th-and early 20th-century military camps.” Perspectives in biology and medicine 49.1 (2006): 52-63. | WHO newsroom: Typhoid Fever (May 2020). https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/typhoid-fever |
| Cunha, Burke A. “The cause of the plague of Athens: plague, typhoid, typhus, smallpox, or measles?.” Infectious disease clinics of North America 18.1 (2004): 29. | GAVI (2019). “Pakistan becomes first country to introduce new typhoid vaccine into routine immunization program”. https://www.gavi.org/news/media-room/pakistan-becomes-first-country-introduce-new-typhoid-vaccine-routine-immunisation |
| Hasian, Marouf A. “Power, medical knowledge, and the rhetorical invention of “Typhoid Mary”.” Journal of Medical Humanities 21.3 (2000): 123-139. | |
| Jones, Gordon W. “The first epidemic in English America.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 71.1 (1963): 3-10. | |
| Moorhead, Robert. “William Budd and typhoid fever.” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 95.11 (2002): 561-564. | |
| Othman, Amani, and William W. Darrow. “The Wall, the Ban, and the Objectification of Women: Has” Uncle Sam” Learned any Lessons from” Typhoid Mary?”.” The International Journal of Social Quality 9.2 (2019): 1-18. | |
| Papagrigorakis, Manolis J., Christos Yapijakis, and Philippos N. Synodinos. “Typhoid fever epidemic in ancient Athens.” Paleomicrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2008. 161-173. | |
| Roumagnac, Philippe, et al. “Evolutionary history of Salmonella typhi.” Science 314.5803 (2006): 1301-1304. | |
| Shapiro, Beth, Andrew Rambaut, and M. Thomas P. Gilbert. “No proof that typhoid caused the Plague of Athens (a reply to Papagrigorakis et al.).” International journal of infectious diseases 10.4 (2006): 334-335. | |
| Spalding, Heman, and Herman N. Bundesen. “Control of Typhoid Fever in Chicago.” American Journal of Public Health 8.5 (1918): 358-362. | |
| United States. Commission Appointed by the President to Investigate the Conduct of the War Dept. in the War with Spain., United States. Congress 1899-1900). Senate. (1900). Report of the Commission Appointed by the President to Investigate the Conduct of the War Department in the War with Spain. Washington: Govt. Print. Off.. | |
| Wald, Priscilla. “Cultures and Carriers:” Typhoid Mary” and the Science of Social Control.” Social Text 52/53 (1997): 181-214. |
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