Risk of influenza pandemic "remains high"

The centenary of the deadly impact of the Spanish flu on New Zealand has raised an alarm: the risk of a new influenza pandemic remains high.

The main outbreak of the Spanish flu occurred between October and December 1918. New Zealand lost two times less in a few months than during the entire First World War. It killed 50 million people around the world and 9,000 people in New Zealand.

Professor Geoff Rice attended a ceremony in Wellington over the weekend to mark the centenary of the worst public health disaster in the country.

The researcher said the risk of another influenza pandemic remained high and that if a similarly deadly infection were to affect New Zealand today, one could expect more than 30,000 deaths.

In 1918, cities like Wellington are paralyzed. The seats were removed from the town hall to make room for beds, turned into a temporary hospital. The deaths occurred so quickly that local mail trucks, and even the mayor's car, were used to transport bodies to the Karori cemetery.

The November 2018 armistice only contributed to the spread of contagion, as people gathered to celebrate the end of a long war.

The world has experienced recent crises, notably in 1997 with the bird flu in Hong Kong and in 2009 with the Mexican swine flu.

Nine new strains of influenza have appeared in humans since 2000. The main lesson from the Spanish flu should not be complacent, Rice said.