Reference Material:
Mary Mallon, also known as Typhoid Mary, was the first person in the United States identified as an asymptomatic carrier of the pathogen associated with typhoid fever. She was presumed to have infected 51 people, three of whom died, over the course of her career as a cook.1 She was twice forcibly isolated by public health authorities and died after a total of nearly three decades in isolation.23From 1900 to 1907, Mallon worked as a cook in the New York City area for seven families.7 In 1900, she worked in Mamaroneck, New York, where, within two weeks of her employment, residents developed typhoid fever. In 1901, she moved to Manhattan, where members of the family for whom she worked developed fevers and diarrhea, and the laundress died. Mallon then went to work for a lawyer; she left after seven of the eight people in that household became ill.
In 1906, she took a position in Oyster Bay, Long Island, and within two weeks 10 of the 11 family members were hospitalized with typhoid. She changed jobs again, and similar occurrences happened in three more households. She worked as a cook for the family of a wealthy New York banker, Charles Henry Warren. When the Warrens rented a house in Oyster Bay for the summer of 1906, Mallon went along too. From August 27 to September 3, six of the 11 people in the family came down with typhoid fever. The disease at that time was “unusual” in Oyster Bay, according to three medical doctors who practiced there.
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Sample Answer:
Mary Mallon worked as a cook who was born in Ireland and immigrated to the US in 19th century. She was the first carrier of typhoid fever in the US which could be transmitted through food and water. Mary infected 22 people in her life, of whom one died. But she denied she had the disease and was isolated for three years before she dies. (65 words)
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