Dr. Fred and the Spanish Lady: Fighting the Killer Flu

Can$18.95

To this day, more questions than answers surround the 1918 outbreak of a deadly flu pandemic that threatened to destroy the world. History has put death estimates as high as 50 million people worldwide. The American death toll from the flu was more than 10 times than that of World War I. In Canada, the flu started in Halifax and, wearing the name Spanish flu or “Spanish Lady,” spread steadily west to the Vancouver domain of public health officer Dr. Fred Underhill.

Underhill was in Toronto at the end of World War I when spent troops came home from Europe as unknowing carriers of the most deadly germ the world had ever faced. He saw first-hand the human helplessness and rapid devastation this new disease brought with it. Its spread was inevitable, and the good doctor knew he had to return home to fight it in his own west-coast jurisdiction of Vancouver, B.C.

Authors O’Keefe and Macdonald have studied Underhill’s grand defence and yeoman service to meet a medical challenge unique in our history. Their timely story comes exactly one century after Underhill was appointed Vancouver’s first medical health officer, and in the lingering shadow of SARS, an ominous indicator of how vulnerable we remain to new viral diseases. With a proven record of grand storytelling (see their six previous Heritage titles on page 10), Betty and Ian celebrate the public-health achievements of one man while giving contemporary meaning to an 85-year-old mystery. This is a compelling read that may both educate and scare the hell out of you.

Included is a foreword by Dr. John Blatherwick, chief medical health officer of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority.

 

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