Dictionary of Sydney: The Spanish Flu
A hundred years ago in 1919, a virulent influenza that was spreading around the world arrived in Sydney. It was a particularly serious strain – a pneumonic influenza – very contagious, and very deadly. As troops from WWI demobilised from Europe and Africa, the virus spread like wildfire – it became what medical people call a pandemic: an epidemic that spreads across national boundaries.
Lisa Murray from the Dictionary of Sydney told us all about a city in the middle or a flu crisis.
