Just over ninety years ago, in November 1918, New Zealand was in the grip of its worst-ever disease outbreak. A lethal influenza pandemic killed more than 8600 people in two months. No other event has claimed so many New Zealand lives in such a short time.
Many people believed that the second wave of the 1918 influenza
pandemic arrived in New Zealand in the form of ‘a deadly new virus’ on
board the RMS Niagara.
