Suzana Vuljevic (EuropeNow Research Editor; Ph.D. History and Comparative Literature, ’20) contributed an article to Eurozine about the 1972 outbreak of smallpox in Yugoslavia and the state’s response of mandatory nationwide vaccination. Although the campaign was conducted under martial law, the population played along. Fifty years later, vaccination rates in the former Yugoslavia are among the lowest in Europe.

Photo: Physician checking immunization reaction of a man vaccinated during the smallpox epidemic (Kosovo, Yugoslavia, March/April 1972). Photo by Dr. William Foege, via  Wikimedia Commons