We have been hearing about asymptomatic carrier quite a lot in the past few months.
An illustration, published around 1909, depicting Typhoid Mary breaking skulls into a skillet.
Mary Mallon was born in 1869 in Cookstown, County Tyrone, in what is now Northern Ireland.
Later, she became a cook, working with affluent families in Manhattan.
But things were not going as well as they seemed.
Shortly after the family arrived, the youngest daughter became ill, followed by their two maids.
Soon, Mrs. Warren became sick too, then another daughter, and finally the gardener.
Typhoid is a bacterial infection that typically spread through food and water contaminated bysalmonella typhi.
Patients who fall sick to typhoid experience high fever, headache, diarrhea and delirium.
In the early 20th century, there were no antibiotics and one out of 10 died of the disease.
Typhoid bacteria (Salmonella typhi) under electron microscope.
The source of the outbreak remained a mystery.
Soper was able to trace Mary’s employment history back to 1900.
He found that typhoid outbreaks had followed Mary from job to job.
There was typhoid in the residence too.
Grabbing a carving fork from the table, Mary chased Soper out of the house.
Sopher tried again, this time in the apartment of a man Mary was spending time with.
Mary threw Sopher out again, swearing the whole way.
As soon as Mary saw Baker, she ran back to the kitchen and escaped through a window.
When they opened the door, they found Mary.
It took five police officers to pull Mary out scratching and screaming and yelling.
It was like being in a cage with an angry lion, Baker recalled.
At the hospital, Marys stool was examined.
It was full of pure culture of the typhoid bacteria.
Mary Mallon in bed after having been institutionalized in a hospital on North Brother Island.
In 1907, Mary was confined to quarantine on North Brother Island, in the East River.
Mary suffered from a nervous breakdown after her arrest and forcible transportation.
“I never had typhoid in my life, and have always been healthy.
It is unjust, outrageous, uncivilized.
And it is incredible that in a Christian community a defenseless woman can be treated in this manner.
After nearly three years, Mary was released from quarantine.
Upon release, Mary promptly disappeared.
She assumed a new name and went cooking again.
Mary changed jobs frequently, which kept her one step ahead of health officials desperate to find her.
Mallon (fourth from right) with other quarantinees on North Brother Island.
Mary was arrested and returned to quarantine on North Brother Island.
This time she made no struggle.
She had become reconciled to a life of imprisonment.
Mary remained on North Brother Island for 23 more years until her death in 1938.
Mary is believed to have infected at least 51 people, of which three died.
The number of cases was probably much higher.
But they were not punished the way Mary Mallon was.
Another notorious super spreader was Belgian-born Alphonse Cotils, who owned a bakery in New York.
Unlike Mary, Cotlis escaped confinement and was released when he promised to conduct his business over the phone.
