Fever Hospital

Infectious disease has threatened life and social order throughout human history, inducing deep and pervasive fear. Fairfield Hospital began life in 1890 as a fever hospital, treating the colonists for typhoid, diphtheria, cholera and smallpox. As the Queen's Memorial Infectious Diseases Hospital from 1919, it grappled with epidemics of polio and scarlet fever. The new Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital, built in 1948, became one of the world's foremost centres for the research and treatment of infectious diseases, especially HIV/AIDS. It was closed in 1996 amid controversy, protest and distress. The combined expertise of the Fairfield Hospital team is now scattered. But Anderson, in gathering together the fruits of their knowledge, experience and skill, has ensured that the story of a remarkable and much-loved hospital is not lost to us.