A nasty virus that was not "really the flu" was doing the rounds in Canberra, The Canberra Times reported on this day in 1988. It was a combination of a couple of viruses with another organism that did not fit a particular category, making it rather difficult to stop.
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Dr Peter Collignon, a microbiologist at Woden Valley Hospital, tracked any infectious diseases in Canberra. He said the infection contained typical symptoms of the flu but what differentiated it was that it also caused nausea, vomiting, headache and upper abdominal pain.
One of the issues of the outbreak was the organism was "halfway between a virus and a bacteria". Laboratory workers at Woden Valley Hospital were culturing the viruses for weeks but had yet to manage to isolate an increased number of influenza viruses or positive antibody results.
Dr Collignon said "usually with a flu epidemic we can see these results pretty quickly". The previous, Influenza B was prevalent in the results but this outbreak did not yield the same result.
A doctor from the City Health Centre stated he had treated numerous people in the last few weeks with the symptoms of this new virus. He said "it's very like the old gastric flu, but it does not have the prominent features of flu, including limb pain".
The virus seemed to be highly similar to the one in Sydney but it was not sending people to the hospital unless they had underlying issues like heart problems. The Australian Federal Police recruit college had to close for a period of time as 65 out of its 91 students were too sick to attend.
![Times Past: July 6, 1988 Times Past: July 6, 1988](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/232169359/cb1ade9b-a413-4445-9e1a-8a79623133af.png/r0_0_910_1270_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Community-based doctors stated the painkiller fever dampers and rest were the best form of treatment. As the virus spread to rapidly through closed groups, people with these symptoms were advised to removed themselves from any contact.
Over 30 years later, COVID made its way through Canberra and the rest of Australia leading to the closure of borders, lockdowns and a disruption to daily life. As nations bounce back from that period, it will forever be etched into the memories of everyone.