Medicine: Typhoid Grandma

The Los Angeles Health Department last week revealed that of its 21 latest typhoid cases eleven have been traced to carriers, ten of whom turned out to be grandmothers. One grandmother had caused four cases and one death in her family in 40 years.

City Health Officer George M. Uhl’s explanation of the grandmother menace: “These grandmothers lived through a period in which typhoid fever was rampant in the U.S. It is known that 2% of typhoid cases became permanent carriers. Grandmothers are frequently active in the preparation of food in the home [known typhoid carriers must sign an agreement not to prepare food for outsiders].”