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NOVA explores the legacy of one of history's most infamous
disease carriers: Mary Mallon, aka "Typhoid Mary."
Interweaving biography and social history, this episode tells
the extraordinary story of Mary Mallon, better known as Typhoid
Mary. She gained this notoriety by being the first person in North
America to be identified as a healthy carrier of typhoid fever.
Despite her indignant protests of innocence, she was incarcerated
for years on an island in the East River. Mary Mallon's saga throws
into vivid relief the emerging science of public health, and the
social, ethical and legal dilemmas it posed to its pioneers at the
turn of the 20th century.