Sign Up And Receive Our Latest Updates!
.svg){kind=small}
.svg){kind=small}
The aftermath – lessons learned
What happened to Spanish Flu in New Zealand and what lessons can we learn from it, in the age of Covid-19?
The end? |The Spanish Flu epidemic ended in 1919 once New Zealanders had developed collective immunity, although the virus never completely disappeared. The H1N1 virus that caused the 1918 pandemic is still with us today.
In New Zealand, cities with slum housing areas and troop camps bore the brunt of the pandemic's impact, as did rural Māori communities where there was little immunity to colds and flus.
The death rate for Māori was among the highest in the world. Emeritus professor of history at The University of Canterbury, Professor Geoff Rice says another impact of Spanish Flu was that it blew the lid off racism within Aotearoa: "Some places, like Temuka in the South Island, had racial segregation of flu patients, while others, such as Taumarunui, put everyone in the same temporary hospital, the Central Hotel, regardless of race."
It is estimated that around 9000 people died of Spanish Flu in Aotearoa. Of these, 2500 were Māori, a sobering death rate of 50 per 1000 people.
Forty percent of all New Zealanders were infected.
.jpg)
What can we learn from the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic?
Rates of death varied dramatically across countries and cities. Authorities that responded quickly with public health measures such as mask-wearing and quarantining, did a better job of containing infections and had fewer deaths.
Out of all the major cities in Aotearoa, Wellington suffered the most with a death rate of eight people per thousand, while Christchurch – which quickly organised its health response and had fewer inner city slums – fared the best with 4.9 deaths per thousand.
Effective communication between government and civic leaders proved important, as did a community’s ability to organise itself when public services collapsed.
Knowledge of basic nursing skills and infection control along with prompt distribution of medicines were also vital.
These things would go on to inform pandemic planning in New Zealand.
A public inquiry launched in the wake of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic found that a lack of preparedness significantly contributed to the spread of the disease. "Confusion and overlapping" prevailed, said the inquiry:
"We, as a people, have been too much disposed to regard affairs relating to public health as being almost exclusively the province of the medical expert and the specialist, instead of being the concern of the general body of citizens, as it should be."