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Who was Typhoid Mary?

Mary Mallon (1870?–1938) was known as Typhoid Mary because she was supposedly responsible for the most famous outbreaks of typhoid fever (a disease caused by the bacteria Salmonella typhi). During an epidemic (widespread out-breaks) of typhoid fever in Oyster Bay, New York, in 1904, doctors recognized Mary, who worked as a cook, as the carrier of the disease. (A carrier has the germ within his or her body but does not exhibit any symptoms of the disease.) However, by the time they realized that she was the carrier, she had moved elsewhere. She worked as a cook at various places in New York until 1907, when she was hospitalized at Riverside Hospital in New York City to prevent further outbreaks. Authorities released her in 1910, with her promise that she would not work as a cook, but four years later, after an outbreak of typhoid fever, authorities found Mary Mallon working as a cook in a sanatorium...

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