byname of Mary Mallon
born 1870?
died Nov. 11, 1938, North Brother Island, N.Y., N.Y., U.S.
U.S. carrier of typhoid .
A 1904 typhoid epidemic on Long Island was traced to households where she had been a cook. She fled, but authorities finally caught up with her and isolated her on an island off the Bronx. In 1910 she was released after agreeing not to take a food-handling job, but she did, causing more typhoid outbreaks. She was returned to the island for the rest of her life. Three deaths and 51 original cases were directly attributed to her.