Mary Mallon, aka Typhoid Mary, was a cook who was found to be a healthy carrier of the bacteria that caused typhoid fever - spreading the disease to others. In 1907, when she was forced to live in an isolated cottage that was part of the Riverside Hospital (an infectious-disease hospital) on North Brother island, off the Bronx shoreline, she was given a fox terrier as a companion. Not understanding why this was happening, Mallon wrote, "I never had typhoid in my life, and have always been healthy. Why should I be banished like a leper and compelled to live in solitary confinement with only a dog for a companion?"
 |
| Poster warning of the dangers of food contamination. Doctors theorized poor hand washing when handling food was the likely cause of passing along typhoid germs. |
In 1910, a new health commissioner released Mallon from quarantine with the agreement that she never work with food again. At first she didn't, but not being able to make as good of money as a cook and believing that she posed no risk to others, she changed her name to Mary Brown and got a job as a cook. In 1915, another outbreak occurred at a maternity hospital and it was soon discovered that their cook was Typhoid Mary. She was sent back to her cottage on the island.
After Mallon suffered a stroke in 1932, she was transferred to the hospital where she stayed until her death in 1938 at the age of 69. She was blamed for 51 cases and 3 deaths of typhoid. North Brother island was abandoned in 1963 and some say her ghost still roams the hospital corridors.
