Jennie Barmore (popularly known as "Typhoid Jennie") was the operator of a boarding house in Chicago from 1910 until about 1920 who was placed under an involuntary quarantine by the Chicago Health Commission in 1919 after being deemed an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid. Barmore, represented by attorney Clarence Darrow, challenged the forced quarantine in court unsuccessfully. She subsequently moved to Oklahoma.
In 1910, Barmore opened a boarding house in Chicago. [1] Barmore's husband George had been severely disabled after an accident and was unable to work, making the operation of the boarding house their sole source of income. [1] [2] Barmore cooked meals for the boarding house's residents. [1]
In November 1919, through the use of contact tracing, Chicago Health Commissioner John Dill Robertson found that five cases of typhoid had originated at the boarding house that Barmore operated in the city. [2] At least five individuals hospitalized for typhoid had listed the boarding house as their place of residence. One of these individuals would ultimately die from typhoid. In July 1919, Barmore's adult son David had also contracted typhoid after visiting his parents. [1]
Robertson acted to close the boarding house, ordering its boarders to move out. [3] Since Barmore prepared the food consumed by boarders, she was tested for typhoid. Three samples collected from her tested positive. She was ordered to cease cooking for others and to cease taking in boarders. [1] Barmore, at the time 65 years of age, [3] refused to cease operating her boarding house, arguing that it was her household's sole source of income. On December 15, Jennie was taken away from the boarding house and brought to Cook County Hospital by an armed health official and three police officers. This time, she was again tested for typhoid, but the tests came back negative and she was released from the hospital. [2]
The Chicago Health Commission insisted that Barmore was an asymptomatic carrier. [2] Barmore was placed under a strict quarantine in her residence. [1] Health officials placed signage at the front of the boarding house declaring the presence of typhoid at the boarding house, mandating that nobody could enter without the approval of the Chicago Health Commission, and warning the milkman to refrain from collecting any empty milk bottles from the building. Barmore was quarantined inside and prohibited from shopping, utilizing public restrooms, and preparing food for anyone but herself and her husband (she was prohibited from preparing food for her adult children if they were to visit her). [2]
Barmore caught national attention, with her situation coming on the heels of that of "Typhoid Mary" in New York City that had been national news years prior. [2] Barmore was similarly dubbed "Typhoid Jennie". [2] [3]
The American Medical Liberty League, a Chicago-based anti-vaccine organization, was supportive of Barmore's cause. [2] They announced that they planned to file a lawsuit with Barmore, and noted lawyer Clarence Darrow agreed to represent them. The case was heard in the Superior Court of Cook County, with a judge ruling in November 1920 that Barmore was a public health threat and that her quarantine was needed. [3]
With Darrow still representing her, [4] in June 1921 [3] Barmore petitioned the Supreme Court of Illinois for a writ of habeas corpus to declare that Robertson and Chicago Health Commission epidemiologist Herman Bundesen were unlawfully restraining her liberty by preventing her from leaving her home amid suspicions that she was a carrier of typhoid. Her petition was denied in April 1922. [5] The court found Barmore to be a health concern, and permitted health officials to hold her in quarantine for as long as they deemed it to be necessary. [2] However, the case's holding greatly weakened the authority of the health commissioner of Chicago. The court found that the health commissioner lacked much authority, since the city had no board of health (as authorized by the state), but instead had itself established a Department of Health. The court decided that the Chicago City Council had no authority to delegate to the Department of Health authority equivalent to what the state would allow them to grant a board of health. Consequently, the top health official of Chicago would have weakened authority until a board of health was created in Chicago in 1932. [4]
Sometime following their court loss, Barmore and her husband left Chicago and moved to Oklahoma. Barmore died in 1940. [2]
A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals, and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have been exposed to a communicable disease, yet do not have a confirmed medical diagnosis. It is distinct from medical isolation, in which those confirmed to be infected with a communicable disease are isolated from the healthy population.
Typhoid fever, also known simply as typhoid, is a disease caused by Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi bacteria, also called SalmonellaTyphi. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several days. This is commonly accompanied by weakness, abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, and mild vomiting. Some people develop a skin rash with rose colored spots. In severe cases, people may experience confusion. Without treatment, symptoms may last weeks or months. Diarrhea may be severe, but is uncommon. Other people may carry it without being affected, but are still contagious. Typhoid fever is a type of enteric fever, along with paratyphoid fever. Salmonella enterica Typhi is believed to infect and replicate only within humans.
Mary Mallon, commonly known as Typhoid Mary, was an Irish-born American cook who is believed to have infected between 51 and 122 people with typhoid fever. The infections caused three confirmed deaths, with unconfirmed estimates of as many as 50. She was the first person in the United States identified as an asymptomatic carrier of the pathogenic bacterium Salmonella typhi. She was forcibly quarantined twice by authorities, the second time for the remainder of her life because she persisted in working as a cook and thereby exposed others to the disease. Mallon died after a total of nearly 30 years quarantined. Her popular nickname has since become a term for persons who spread disease or other misfortune.
Clarence Seward Darrow was an American lawyer who became famous in the 19th century for high profile representations of trade union causes, and in the 20th century for several criminal matters, including the Leopold and Loeb murder trial, the Scopes "monkey" trial, and the Ossian Sweet defense. He was a leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union and a prominent advocate for Georgist economic reform. Darrow was also well known as a public speaker, debater, and writer.
A boarding house is a house in which lodgers rent one or more rooms on a nightly basis and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months, or years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning, may be supplied. It normally provides "room and board," with some meals as well as accommodation.
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Marguerite Kamehaokalani Ashford became the first woman attorney to practice in the Territory of Hawaii. At the time of her 1916 admission to the Hawaii bar, she was the only woman attorney in Hawaii. Almeda Eliza Hitchcock had previously practiced law in the islands while Hawaii was still a kingdom, but had ceased her practice before the 1893 overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The third woman attorney in Hawaii was Carrick Hume Buck who was admitted to the Hawaii bar in 1924, making Ashford and Buck the only two practicing women attorneys in the territory as of that date.
In 2000, typhoid fever caused an estimated 21.7 million illnesses and 217,000 deaths. It occurs most often in children and young adults between 5 and 19 years old. In 2013, it resulted in about 161,000 deaths – down from 181,000 in 1990. Infants, children, and adolescents in south-central and Southeast Asia experience the greatest burden of illness. Outbreaks of typhoid fever are also frequently reported from sub-Saharan Africa and countries in Southeast Asia. In the United States, about 400 cases occur each year, and 75% of these are acquired while traveling internationally.
The Superior Court of Cook County was a court in Cook County, Illinois.
Guam, one of the external territories of the United States of America confirmed its first case of the COVID-19 pandemic on March 15, 2020, and the first death on March 22. The Government of Guam ordered the general lockdown of the island in mid-March. Governor Lou Leon Guerrero announced the implementation of a four-step "Pandemic Condition of Readiness" (PCOR) on April 30, 2020. Travelers to Guam from designated high-risk areas must provide a recent negative COVID-19 test or undergo mandatory quarantine in a government-approved facility. Guam moved from PCOR 1 to PCOR 2 on May 10, allowing some business activity with restrictions, and then to PCOR 3 on July 20. An outbreak in mid-August was not controlled for several months, resulting in the 7-day rolling test positivity rate to spike above 15% in early October 2020, as well as infections in both the Governor and Lieutenant Governor. Guam announced a return to the lockdown conditions of PCOR 1 on August 14 to control the outbreak, which was not loosened to PCOR 2 until January 15, 2021. It was further relaxed to PCOR 3 on February 21, 2021. From December 2020 to July 2021 cases stayed very low until a surge in August 2021 largely as a result of the delta variant. By October 2021, 90% of the population was vaccinated.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Niue was part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Niue reported its first confirmed case on 9 March 2022.
John Dill Robertson was an American medical professional and politician. He served as Chicago's city health commissioner, president of the Chicago Board of Education, and president of the Chicago West Parks Board. In 1927, Robertson ran a third-party campaign for Chicago mayor. As a politician, Thompson was affiliated with the Republican Party. He was an ally of Republican boss Frederick Lundin, and prior to his 1927 mayoral campaign against him, had also long been an ally of William Hale Thompson.
Nancy K. Conn (1919–2013) was a Scottish bacteriologist known primarily for her work on preventing the spread of typhoid in Edinburgh in the summer of 1970.
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