Mary Mallon Biography

When cook Mary Mallon unwittingly spread typhoid in 1907 New York, she was quarantined. However, on her release she returned to work under a fake name, causing another deadly outbreak.

"Woman Cook a Walking Typhoid Fever Factory," said the headline in a New York City newspaper in 1907. The woman was Mary Mallon, an Irish immigrant who as "Typhoid Mary" would become a notorious symbol of a public health menace. Mary Mallon's ordeal took place at a time when the new science of bacteriology was shaping public health policies in America for the first time, and her case continues to hold lessons amid today's heightened concerns about communicable diseases.

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