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> Is Typhoid Mary some common cultural reference, or are you just really familiar with the character I'm thinking of from the old Daredevil comics?
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Typhoid Mary was a real person. I"m slightly fuzzy about some of the facts (maybe someone could look them up on a health site or something) but I believe she was a food service worker in New York during the 1920's or '30s. She herself did not exhibit symptoms of the disease but carried the virus (bacteria?) which causes it.
Of course, working with food was a perfect way to spread it. I don't remember if she *knew* she was a carrier, or *didn't know*, or if she knew but had some mental illness, but at any rate she went from job to job and managed to infect a *lot* of people, in a day and age before antibiotics. Typhoid epidemics were nasty.
Eventually public health officials finally figured out she was the disease vector and if I recall correctly she was actually arrested. (?)
I think several public health laws were enacted as a result ("all employees must wash their hands before leaving restroom" etc.)

koala"or I could be entirely wrong :-)"mom