Mary Mallon's early life
Mary Mallon was born in Ireland in 1869, and arrived in New York around 1884. She was very fond of cooking, and soon began working as a cook in wealthy New York families. However, she was unaware that a deadly bacteria, Salmonella Typhi, was present in her body, which could prove fatal to others.
typhoid outbreak
In 1906, Charles Henry Warren, a wealthy New York banker, rented a house in Long Island and entrusted Mary with cooking for his family. But between August 27 and September 3, six of the 11 people in the house became seriously ill, diagnosed with typhoid.
George Sober's investigation
At that time, typhoid was considered a dangerous disease, due to which 10% of the patients died. Henry Warren hired a sanitary engineer named George Sober to solve this mystery. Sober, in his investigation, found that in Mary Mallon's previous work records, typhoid cases had been reported in 7 of the 8 houses.
Detention and quarantine
In March 1907, Sober requested Mary to provide samples, but she refused. Ultimately, with the help of the police, he was detained and his samples were taken, which came positive. Nearly 3,000 people were affected by typhoid that year in New York, and Mary had no choice but to isolate.
Legal battle and resurgence
In 1909, Mary filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health. During the two-year quarantine, 120 of his samples came back positive. He was eventually released, but started cooking again and infected many people. He was arrested again and deported to North Brother Island.
end of mary mallon
Mary spent 26 years of her life on that deserted island. In 1932, he became paralyzed and died in 1938. Post-mortem of his body was done, in which typhoid bacteria were found. However, some believe that the health department spread the rumor about the post-mortem to avoid ethical controversies.