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The First World War ended in 1918, but the joy was brief in New Zealand. A deadly flu pandemic swept the country shortly thereafter. In the first part of a two-part feature film, health journalist Mike Houlahan describes how Otago and Southland faced a disease that killed about 1,000 people in just a few weeks.
The influenza pandemic of 1918 killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people worldwide, or about 5% of the world's population, a much worse record than the World War I that preceded it.
However, the war was so devastating and took so long that the much more deadly pandemic that followed made its appearance.
The pandemic flu strain first appeared overseas in January 1918 and probably arrived in New Zealand around September.
In just two months, the disease killed two New Zealanders who died during the four years of war.
They had their last breath at home, in the hospital or in the corridors, classrooms and galleries that were forced to go to the emergency ward as wards – and then as morgues.
Of the 9,000 estimated deaths from influenza in New Zealand, 224 were in Otago, 273 in Dunedin and 500 in Southland, where 8.2 people were killed, which is one of the highest death rates. per capita the highest in the country.
Someone who reads Otago Daily Times the month before the onset of the flu, Dunedin might have guessed that something was looming on the horizon – the newspaper contained commercials for "Dr. Sheldon's new discovery for cough and Cold "," Chamberlain Cough Cure "," Catarrh Reducer "," Fluenzol "," Hearne's Bronchitis Treatment "and" Vapocresolene ".
However, with the war raging in Europe and the fiery debate around prohibition, the arrival of the deadly disease in the North Island has only been the object of d & # 39; 39, a brief cover – and its threat to those of the South has been terribly underestimated.
"The flu here is not of the serious type in Auckland and to a lesser extent in Wellington and other cities, and it is likely that the weather conditions in Otago will provide the community with a protective measure. against the disease ", the ODT reported November 9 – five days after the first flu death in Dunedin.
"If New Zealand's first line of defense was quarantine, we unfortunately failed," said former public health lecturer at Otago University, Warwick Brunton.
"You would have had another quarantine barrier, Cook Strait, and as I understand it, they probably did not recognize the seriousness of the risk.
"Because the country depended on coastal shipping, ferry service and railroads, it was inevitable that the flu would reach the South Island."
Commercial air travel was years away, but New Zealanders were very mobile in 1918.
It was possible to travel from Auckland to Invercargill in two days. New Zealand quickly swept through New Zealand. People began to die of the disease in Whangarei and Invercargill at about the same time.
New Zealand had already endured epidemics – epidemics of typhoid, influenza, smallpox and even bubonic plague at different times – but nothing on the scale of this strain of influenza.
The country also did not have the public health bureaucracy needed to cope with the pandemic. In 1918, the headquarters of the Ministry of Public Health in Wellington employed only eight people, and two of them were detached to the army in Europe.
To add to the sense of confusion, once the flu reached Wellington, the department quickly became paralyzed when its staff succumbed to the disease. Dunedin's chief medical officer, Irwin Faris, had recently qualified in England and was unfamiliar with New Zealand's public health systems.
"He was hired with very few resources, in crisis conditions and without the political and administrative support that would be expected from Wellington," said Dr. Brunton.
Not to help his task of containing the flu was the unconfined joy of the people of Dunedin when the news was announced that the armistice was signed and the war was over.
"If you look at the Otago Witness Photographs of the Armistice Celebration on George Street, between 10 and 30,000 people were packed in this area, "said Dr. Brunton.
"You can not tell me that someone there has not had the flu."
Dr. Faris ordered the fumigation of public buildings and then shut down schools, hotels and other gathering places, but only after the infection of the disease in Dunedin.
At that moment, it was too late.
As more and more people became sick – and more and more people – life in Dunedin stopped shaking.
Trams and train services were erratic or non-existent; police and fire departments worked in the open, workplaces closed or operated at limited hours, banks closed. . . and Dunedin Hospital, as well as two auxiliary hospitals set up to help, were at full capacity and more.
Morale was starting to become a problem, as the ODT noted on November 20th.
"It has been suggested that funerals, which are unfortunately so common today, should not cross Princes and George Streets, but should use some of the lower parallel streets.
"The effects, it was pointed out, are rather depressing and are certainly not conducive to the awakening of the mind.
"Suddenly, they would have started to see people they knew in the obituaries: neighbors, co-workers, family and panic would have started to escalate," said Dr. Brunton.
On November 22 – the day the Catholic bishop of Dunedin, Michael Verdon, died of the flu – Dunedin Hospital's services were filled with 247 cases of influenza, including four of his five surgeons and 82 of his 116 nurses.
As the crisis continued, a massive community effort began to emerge.
In addition to the makeshift hospitals, the volunteers ran food depots, cared for children whose parents were afflicted, ran influenza support offices throughout the city, offered their cars to health workers stranded without public transport and fulfilled many other tasks.
"It was the women who provided all the work behind the scenes," said Dr. Brunton.
"The matrons of Maori Hill and Roslyn were educated at a time when they were supposed to do good works, so that they do these things: they made soup, drugs and everything you have.
"The epidemic has, in a way, brought out the best of the population … There has been a considerable level of support and activity from the community, at the voluntary sector and the health sector. "
Almost as fast as the pandemic swept the South, it was over. On December 10, the city's hospital had almost regained normal admission rates.
At the beginning of the following year, Canon Bryan King of St Peter's Caversham, one of the largest organizers in Dunedin during the pandemic, received the OBE, £ 1,000 and a new car to mark his service.
Hundreds of people who have helped have received formal and grateful thank you certificates. Curiously, no public memorial has been erected in homage to people killed by the flu, unlike the many war memorials that have sprung up and many of Dunedin's victims are buried in a tomb Anderson Cemetery & # 39; s Bay . "I guess people were too stunned to think about it," said Dr. Brunton.
"So many families had been affected by the loss of their family members overseas, which was a unique experience, and I guess that drowned by paying attention to something much closer from their house." You could have had a war to end all wars, but you have not had a pandemic to end all pandemics. "
• Next Saturday: In the second part of our series, we wonder if an event like the 1918 influenza pandemic will happen again and if that happens, will Dunedin come out better?
Chronology
November 4th: First influenza death reported in Dunedin.
November 8th: District Health Officer Irwin Faris orders disinfection of all public buildings; first public inhalation chamber – where people gathered in groups of 20 to 30 people to breathe zinc sulphate vapors, supposed to protect against the flu – opens.
November 10th: The public asked not to travel, six flu patients to Dunedin Hospital.
November 11th: Two deaths from influenza at Dunedin Hospital.
November 12th: Celebrations of the Armistice. 50 influenza patients reported at Dunedin Hospital – six had already died from the disease.
November 13th: Schools, libraries and theaters are closed. 80 cases of influenza at the hospital, four deaths reported. Block block system to treat patients proposed throughout the city.
November 14th: The second inhalation chamber opens. Dunedin Hospital overflowed, four dead that day and 33 sick nurses. Medical students asked for help. Religious services canceled.
November 15th: Fifty-bed auxiliary hospital in the Sunday School Hall at Knox Church; a second is at Hanover St Baptist Church. Closed hairdressing, limited bar and tea room opening hours, cancellation of all outdoor sports.
November 17: Dunedin's doctors can not agree on a proposal to put in place a "blocking" system to manage the flu. 165 patients in the hospital, three other deaths. All bars and breweries are closed.
November 19th: The Dunedin Central Influenza Office has over 500 calls for help. More than 200 in the hospital. St Kilda Mayor Charles Scurr dies.
November 20th: Dunedin's doctors accept the modified block system, which sees doctors assigned to 16 zones. The system lasts 10 days, is credited with "save Dunedin". Temporary hospital open for sick nurses – a third nurse had just died. Schools are closed until further notice, factories and warehouses reduce the hours of opening. Government orders all banks are closed for a week.
21 November: Anglican Memorial Home For Boys is open for taking care of children of sick parents. The ship at Port Chalmers becomes a temporary residence for sailors recovering. Evening trains canceled.
November 22nd: Invercargill's doctors reject the second call for the introduction of the block system; The death rate in cities of 10.7 out of 1000 people is one of the highest in New Zealand. Dunedin Hospital has 247 influenza cases, including four of five surgeons and 82 of 116 nurses. Death of Michael Verdon, Catholic Bishop of Dunedin.
November 23: Suspended tram service. The medical superintendent of Dunedin is out of action in the face of the flu. 60 cases at the auxiliary hospital at Stuart Hall.
November 24th: 130 railway employees on leave. A man dies, leaving a widow and nine children, eight of whom are sick. Motorists urged to offer their cars to help nurses and ferry supplies.
November 25th: Establishment of a flu office in Dunedin South.
November 26: The pandemic peaks in Dunedin and 16 people die from the flu at the hospital.
November 27th: 157 patients at the Dunedin Hospital, the declared situation improve. Blocking system in process of elimination.
November 29th: Admissions to the Dunedin Hospital have significantly decreased, but 178 patients are still being treated. Death of Veteran Evening Star reporter John Harris. The majority of police and firefighters are back at work.
November 30th: Almost all staff and 180 patients, sick at Seacliff.
1st December: Rowena Knight, daughter of the chairman of the hospital board, dies.
December 2: 17 new influenza patients admitted; he was 46 a week earlier.
December 3: Admissions drop back to Dunedin Hospital, no new admissions to the hospital. Tram services are returning to normal. Resumption of sales of alcohol.
December 4th: ODT publishes death chart at Dunedin Hospital: 25% of people admitted with influenza in the previous month have died.
December 8th: The sport resumes.
December 14th: The first emergency food depot closes, the rest closes the following week.
The toll
Nationally
The epidemic killed an estimated 9,000 New Zealanders in less than two months. By contrast, the First World War killed just over 18,000 people in four years.
A disproportionate number of Maori were killed: their overall death rate was 50 per 1,000 people, about eight times higher than Pakeha's.
Otago
Waitaki 22. Hampden 4. Oamaru 46. Waihemo 6. Palmerston 5. Waikouaiti County 6. Waikouaiti 4. Seacliff 21. Taieri 10. Mosgiel 11. Bruce 3. Kaitangata 4. Milton 5. Clutha 6. Balclutha 10. Owaka. 15. Tuapeka 4. Lawrence 4. Roxburgh 2. Tapanui 8. Naseby 2. Vincent 7. Alexandra 9. Cromwell 4. Lakes 1. Arrowtown 1. Queenstown 3. Total 224. Population 62 858.
Dunedin
Roslyn 22. Maori Hill 4. North East Valley 18. Central Dunedin. 63. Mornington 9. St Kilda 28. South Dunedin 30. Caversham 22. Green Island 15. Chalmers Harbor 20. West Harbor 1. Tainui-Anderson Bay 4. Peninsula. 1. Dunedin (no other address is indicated) 36. Total 273. Population 68,716.
Southland
Southland County. 101. Bluff 8. Gore 27. Lumsden 5. Mataura 13. Winton 19. Wyndham 13. Invercargill 171. Wallace 72. Nightcaps-Wairio 33. Otautau 21. Riverton 16. Stewart Island 1. Total 500. Population 59,390.
Source: Black November by Geoffrey W Rice.
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