Irish cook Mary Mallon (1869-1938) was dubbed "Typhoid Mary" by the media after she infected dozens of people with the dreaded disease.

When Mallon worked as a cook at the turn of the century, typhoid fever was a highly contagious disease and a serious threat to the public health. Mallon was the first identified person who carried and spread the disease without ever exhibiting the symptoms. At least three deaths and 53 cases of typhoid were directly linked to her, with thousands of other probable cases. Because she refused treatment, she spent her final years quarantined as a threat to the public health.

Ordinary Beginnings

Mary Mallon was born September 23, 1869. She claimed to have been born in the United States, but actually was born in Cookstown, County Tyrone, Ireland, to Catherine Igo Mallon and John Mallon, and immigrated from Ireland as a teenager to live in New York with...