Mary Mallon, 26 years in quarantine
- New York, 27 March 1915. The cook Mary Mallon was quarantined in a hospital on the island of North Brother, after spreading typhoid fever to a lot of people. It wasn't for this reason the first time he was forced into quarantine, but it would be the last.
Mary was born in Northern Ireland in 1869, and at the age of 15, like many other countrymen, moved to the United States in search of an easier livelihood. He worked as a cook until in 1907 typhoid fever began to spread to middle- and upper-class families in the city. Sanitation engineer George Soper was studying new outbreaks of the disease and discovered that several infected families were joining in something: Mary Mallon was her chef. Although he had no symptoms, he was the contaminant, so he was locked up in the hospital on the island of North Brother. This first quarantine was three years.
When he was released, he was forbidden to work as a cook, but Mallon had no other trade. His identity was falsified, he continued to work – and to infect his relatives – until in 1915 he was arrested again and admitted to the hospital. Mary Mallon died in 1938, isolated on the island of Brother Island, without getting out of bed in the last six years.
Typhoid Mary was nicknamed “the most dangerous woman in America.” He was accused of nearly 500 infections and 50 deaths, even though the proven cases were far fewer: 51 cases and 3 deaths. The case of a pathogen with no symptoms was the first time the case of a supercontaminant was studied, but it was not the only case. For example, at the same time in New York, Tony Labella infected at least 122 people, of whom 5 died. Labella remained in quarantine for two weeks, while the total number of poor immigrant women was 26 years.
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