Witness History
Witness History
Europe's last smallpox epidemic
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November 23, 2021
10 minutes
Available for over a year
Eighteen million people were vaccinated against smallpox in the former communist Yugoslavia in only a month and a half in 1972. The mass vaccination campaign succeeded in containing the last smallpox epidemic in Europe. Dr Ana Gligic was a virologist who detected the first cases of the disease and helped tackle the outbreak.
PHOTO: A smallpox patient in Yugoslavia in 1972 (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)