Influenza

As a hopeful world waited for an end to hostilities late in 1918, an influenza epidemic of unparalleled ferocity swept the globe, killing tens of millions in just a few months. In Auckland, so many died so quickly that 400 were buried with only a single headstone in Waikumete Cemetery. Inhalations of zinc sulphate were a popular public health preventative, although the practice would find little favour today.