On Aug. 11, 1918, the first influenza epidemic cases arrived in New York City with a Norwegian vessel Bergensfjord steamed into New York City’s harbor containing ill passengers and crew. The ship held 11 crew and ten passengers infected with a new and particularly aggressive form of influenza.

On the pier were ambulances and health officer for the Port of New York, who immediately whisked the ill sailors to a city hospital. Sailors who had become ill during the voyage but were now recovering as well as those in contact with the sick while on board where put under close surveillance by New York City Department of Health nurses.

New York – no stranger to epidemics – had a long-standing tradition of disease surveillance, isolation, and quarantine, and it was this mechanism that went into immediate effect.