Delirium and fever in the antipodes

Abstract

In 1918, New Zealand was a relatively young country, and from a population that barely exceeded one million, 16,688 of its citizens had died during the 1914-1918 war. As influenza swept through the land in November and December of 1918, a further 8,500 lives were lost. It is estimated that the lethal second wave of the epidemic appeared in New Zealand in October, when hundreds of battle-fatigued nurses and doctors, as well as injured soldiers, were returning home on troopships. Nurses, as front-line caregivers, were some of the first health workers to be exposed to the virulent strain of the virus, and as they succumbed to the infection, hospitals became arenas of pandemonium. Although New Zealand was the first country in the world to introduce registration of its nurses, the profession was still in its infancy. Nurse training was based more on moral order and subservience than theoretical or technical competence, and this left little room for innovation in nursing care or ward management. Voluntary workers endeavoured to alleviate the stress, both in the hospitals and the cities, and the situation in Dunedin mirrored the disarray sustained throughout the remainder of the country. The epidemic was a disaster for nurses, and an awareness of a chapter from the past that challenged nursing knowledge and capabilities is a lesson in the obduracy of infectious disease