In Australia, the 1919 Spanish flu pandemic had many similarities to the COVID-19 outbreak, including closed state borders quarantines, and restrictive public health measures. And just as in COVID times, health care workers took the brunt of the risk. But what was different was the depletion of male workers due to the recently finished GreatContinue reading “Lizzie gave her life to fight flu”
Tag Archives: epidemic
Flu threat reappeared on TI
The 1919 Spanish flu epidemic which had hit Queensland hard was all but over, when an outbreak raced through the Thursday Island population early in 2020. Although some Islanders had been vaccinated the previous year, the original inhabitants still bore the brunt of the disease. Despite this, death tolls announcements focused on the numberContinue reading “Flu threat reappeared on TI”
Typhoid terrorised the nation
Epidemics of infectious diseases came and went in early Australian history – smallpox, measles, the plague, Asiatic and Spanish flu – but typhoid was considered endemic. Outbreaks in the goldfields were inevitable, with overcrowding, no sanitation, a limited water supply and co-existing gold fever. It tended to occur in healthy young men and showed noContinue reading “Typhoid terrorised the nation”
Way to go Australia 