TYPHOID MARY

It was on this day back in 1907 when Mary Mallon a.k.a Typhoid Mary was sentenced into quarantine on North Brother Island for three years. Her crime? Mary was believed to have directly infected 51 people with typhoid (three of whom passed away) while she was working as a cook for affluent families in the New York City area. Mallon was identified after a lengthy investigation conducted by George Soper, an investigator hired by one of the families, who in turn determined that Mary and her contaminated cuisine was the common demoninator in the multiple outbreaks in the NYC area. Soper contacted authorities and Mary was taken into custody. Doctors conducted multiple tests and came to the conclusion that Mary was most likely the first known “healthy carrier” of the disease in the United States. Mary managed to spread the disease through unsanitary cooking practices while she herself remained asymptomatic. After spending 2 years and 11 months in quarantine Mary was released. As a condition to her newfound freedom, Mary had to agree to stop working as a cook, which she did. She eventually returned to her lucrative profession using different aliases. By 1915 Mary was employed at Sloane Hospital for Women, which again, resulted in at least 25 more typhoid outbreaks there. Hospital staff contacted Soper (who investigated Mary the first time) and he quickly identified her as the culprit. Mary Mallon was once again placed in quarantine on North Brother – but this time it was for the remainder of her life. She would live 23 more years quarantined, passing away on November 11th, 1938 at the age 69. Anthony Bourdain wrote an amazing historical account of Typhoid Mary where he expounded upon the horrifc conditions that allowed the deadly spread of typhoid over a decade.