Friday, July 30, 2010 October 20, 1918 INFLUENZA PANDEMIC REACHES NEWFOUNDLAND On this day Sunday, October 20, 1918 all Churches closed on account of Spanish Influenza epidemic. The week previous on October 13, 1918 all schools, assemblies, and theatres were closed. The influenza pandemic reached Newfoundland on 30 September 1918 when a steamer carrying three infected crewmen docked at St. John’s harbour. Three more infected sailors arrived at Burin on October 4 and they travelled by rail to St. John’s for treatment. A doctor diagnosed the city’s first two local cases of influenza the following day and sent both people to a hospital. Within two weeks, newspapers reported that several hundred people were infected in St. John’s. By mid-October, Medical Officer of Health N.S. Fraser had closed the city’s schools, theatres, concert halls, and other public buildings to help prevent the virus from spreading. In the last week of November, 1,586 cases of influenza and 44 deaths were reported in 28 communities across the island. The highest incidences occurred in St. Mary’s Bay which reported 628 cases. By February 1919, the epidemic had largely ended on the island, although traces of it remained until the summer. Before it disappeared, the disease killed 170 people in outport Newfoundland., 62 deaths were reported in St. John’s. The effects were most devastating in Labrador, where the disease killed close to one third of the Inuit population and forced some communities out of existence. Death rates were particularly high in the Inuit villages of Okak and Hebron. The Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918-19 killed between 20 and 40 million people worldwide, making it one of the largest and most destructive outbreaks of infectious disease in recorded history. For more information on this and other related subjects contact the Archives of the R.C. Archdiocese. www.stjohnsarchdiocese.nf.ca Other “Archival Moments” will be posted at this site on a regular weekly basis. If you have friends or colleagues who would like to receive these "archival moments" please send us their e mail address or forward this moment to them from your desk!! Larry Dohey Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s P.O. Box 1363 St. John’s, NL A1C 5M3 709-726-3660 E-mail: archives@nf.aibn.com We hope that you have enjoyed this archival moment.