Page 62 - Bulletin 11 2007

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The Spanish Influenza Pandemic

As if the war had not caused enough destruction, Pestilence – the fourth horseman of the
Apocalypse – arrived during the last phase of the war and caused more deaths, worldwide,

than all the fighting on all the battlefields. This was the Spanish Influenza Pandemic, worse

than any other in recorded history, which engulfed the entire world during the second half
of 1918, except for a few Atlantic and Pacific islands. Some said it had its origins in South

Africa. Others believe it originated in the Near East, spread to Europe and Spain, where it
was recognised and named as there were no censorship restrictions in that country, and

from there to the rest of the world. It waned during early 1919.

It took Cape Town by surprise in the last week of September and was at its worst during

October, which was consequently dubbed “Black October”. It took hold most intensely
among the poorer communities. In an overall population of some 200,000 a total of 122,720

cases (60% of population) were reported, of whom 6,342 died at an average rate of 300 per

day. During the peak, in the second week of October, 250 burials / day were taking place
but Maitland Cemetery could not cope, especially as many of the grave-diggers were down

with flu. Harold Owen, a brother of poet Wilfred Owen, described the city and surrounding
suburbs as littered with the dead, boxed in orange crates and packing cases, which stood in

great stacks on railway platforms. At the epidemic’s peak ships undocked and anchored out
in Table Bay to escape the contagion. (Turner, 1980).

The three Peninsula municipalities of Cape Town, Wynberg and Simon’s Town launched
emergency responses. All places of entertainment were closed for three weeks, churches

were advised not to open though few heeded this, schools were closed, soup kitchens and
emergency food supplies were organized, municipal cleansing programmes were

intensified, emergency hospitals were set up, UCT doctors and medical students
volunteered their services, ordinary business came to a standstill, shops and offices closed,