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Most Dangerous Woman in America, The
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Program Overview
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NOVA tells the story of the life and struggles of Mary
Mallon—the first healthy carrier of typhoid fever ever
identified—and reviews the development of the nation's early
public health policies as well as the question of individual versus
societal rights.
The program:
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reviews the symptoms, virulence, transmission, and cause of
typhoid fever.
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reveals the discovery in 1907 that people who had recovered from
typhoid fever could still transfer the bacteria—they could
be "healthy carriers"of the disease.
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relates how epidemiologist George Soper tracked down and first
contacted Mallon, an Irish immigrant who had infected six of the
eight families she had worked for over a ten-year period.
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portrays Mallon's fierce resistance to voluntary testing, her
eventual arrest, and the forced testing that revealed she was
carrying typhoid bacteria.
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contrasts Mallon's working-class world with that of the more
educated public health officials who pursued her and speculates
how those differences may have affected how Mallon was viewed.
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chronicles the evolution of New York public health policies that
attempted to stem such diseases as typhoid fever, cholera,
scarlet fever, and tuberculosis.
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reviews Mallon's quarantine at Riverside Hospital on North
Brother Island, the use of experimental medicines on her while
she was there, and her failed legal bid to win freedom from the
island.
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relates Mallon's 1910 release by New York public health
officials and her subsequent failure to keep her promise never
to work again as a cook.
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follows Mallon's reconfinement to North Brother Island and her
eventual acceptance of her life there, where she remained until
her death in 1938 at age 69.
Taping Rights: Can be used up to one year after the program
is taped off the air.
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