Mary Mallon

Mary Mallon was born in Ireland on September 23, 1869, and came to the United States young, working as a cook in New York-based households from 1897 onward. Between 1897 and 1907, members of four families she worked for contracted typhoid fever; an investigation by epidemiologist George Soper identified her as an asymptomatic carrier of Salmonella Typhi bacteria, the first person in the U.S. recognized as such. In 1907 she was forcibly quarantined at Riverside Hospital on North Brother Island, held until 1910 when she swore to report quarterly to the health department and abandon cooking. In e…