1972 Yugoslav smallpox outbreak
The 1972 Yugoslav smallpox outbreak was the largest outbreak of smallpox in Europe after the Second World War.[1] It was centered in SAP Kosovo, a province of Serbia within Yugoslavia, and the capital city of Belgrade. A Kosovar Albanian Muslim pilgrim had contracted the smallpox virus in the Middle East. Upon returning to his home in Kosovo, he started the epidemic in which 175 people were infected, killing 35. The epidemic was efficiently contained by enforced quarantine and mass vaccination. The 1982 film Variola Vera is based on the event.[2]
1972 Yugoslav smallpox outbreak
Background[edit]
By 1972 the disease was considered to be eradicated in Europe. The population of Yugoslavia had been regularly vaccinated for 50 years, and the last case was reported in 1930. This was the major cause of the initial slow reaction by doctors, who did not promptly recognize the disease.[3]
In October 1970, an Afghan family went on pilgrimage from Afghanistan, where smallpox was endemic, to Mashhad in Iran, triggering an epidemic of smallpox in Iran that would last until September 1972. By late 1971, smallpox-infected pilgrims had carried smallpox from Iran into Syria and Iraq.[4]
Reaction[edit]
The government's reaction was swift. Martial law was declared on March 16. Measures included cordons sanitaires of villages and neighborhoods, roadblocks, a prohibition of public assembly, closure of borders and prohibition of all non-essential travel. Hotels were requisitioned for quarantines in which 10,000 people who may have been in contact with the virus were held under guard by the Yugoslav People's Army.[11]
Mumdžić's brother developed a smallpox rash on March 20, resulting in medical authorities realizing that Mumdžić had died of smallpox. The authorities undertook massive revaccination of the population, helped by the World Health Organization (WHO), "almost the entire Yugoslavian population of 18 million people was vaccinated". Leading experts on smallpox were flown in to help, including Donald Henderson and Don Francis.[12]
By mid-May, the outbreak was contained and the country returned to normal life. During the epidemic, 175 people contracted smallpox and 35 died.[13]
Legacy[edit]
The Yugoslav government received international praise for the successful containment of the epidemic, which was one of the finest hours for Donald Henderson and WHO, as well as one of the crucial steps in the eradication of smallpox.[12]
In 1982, Serbian director Goran Marković made the film Variola Vera about a hospital under quarantine during the epidemic.