ABSTRACT
The chapter discusses one of the worst pandemics of the 20th century – the influenza outbreak that devastated much of the world in 1918–1920. In Singapore, a serious outbreak occurred, highlighting the blind spot and inertia of the colonial regime in the early 20th century. The quarantine system’s focus on the trinity of infectious diseases had become entrenched and resistant to change, making Singapore unprepared for a mass outbreak of influenza. The epidemic caught the government by surprise despite recent efforts to improve the quarantine service and the state of public health in the town. Influenza was briefly made a notifiable disease during the epidemic, but again, no firm policy on the disease was made in the aftermath.
