Member-only story
This Woman Got Quarantined for Life Because of Hosting Typhoid
They took samples from her without consent
In 1915, a woman who looked perfectly healthy was quarantined for the second time. She was found to be a carrier of the salmonella bacteria, which causes typhoid. This time, her quarantine was a life sentence. Furthermore, doctors took a maximum of 160 biological samples from her body without her consent. The woman was presented as a specimen to journalists and interns and she was highly neglected until the day of her death.
This is Mary Mallon’s story, publically known as Typhoid Mary, or the most dangerous woman in America.
Who was Mary Mallon
Mary Mallon was a poor Irish immigrant who worked as a cook for wealthy New York families. Mallon was born on September 23rd, 1869, in Cookstown, County Tyrone, Ireland. She relocated to the United States in either 1883 or 1884. She lived with her uncle and his wife before she started working as a cook for wealthy families.
The typhoid outbreaks
In 1906, a Health Department sanitary engineer, George Soper, was hired by a wealthy family. His job was to investigate the source of the typhoid outbreak the family had just suffered.
