Most infections traced to a single asymptomatic carrier
- Who
- Tony La Bella
- What
- 107 total number
- Where
- United States (Newark)
- When
- October 1922
The most people known to have been infected by a single asymptomatic carrier is 107. This figure was reported by New Jersey medical authorities in October 1923, following an investigation into a man called Tony La Bella (USA, b ITA; sometimes known as Frank Boni). Tony La Bella was an asymptomatic typhoid carrier who worked at a number of dairies in the greater New York metropolitan area.
La Bella was responsible for two severe outbreaks of typhoid that spread in this way. He caused 72 cases and 3 deaths at an orphan asylum in Morris County, New Jersey, and for 35 cases and 3 deaths in Newark. He was later arrested and appeared in court in Newark in October 1922.