Report of infectiologist dr. Miomir Kecmanovic on the study stay in India in 1970.

In the archives of the field of health and social policy of socialist Yugoslavia, we can trace the development of infectious diseases in Yugoslavia and the measures taken by the state to combat, eradicate, and eliminate them. Numerous analyses and reviews from the 1960s indicate the various diseases that were problematic and the specific measures taken against them. In addition to health measures, treatment, and vaccination, serious sanitary control measures were also taken. Preventively, strict sanitary measures were implemented at the borders in Yugoslavia (quarantines), especially regarding the immunization of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, due to the risk of importing cholera or smallpox into the country.

The Federal Council for Health and Social Policy (1967-1971) and the Federal Institute for Health Protection conducted analyses of infectious diseases on an annual basis and outlined a program of measures to be implemented in case of the appearance of these diseases in our country. A reference laboratory for samples was designated (Torlak). There was also significant exchange of knowledge and experiences on infectious diseases at the international level. Health cooperation was particularly developed with the countries of the Warsaw Pact and with the so-called developing countries. Yugoslavia was involved in the World Health Organization (WHO) and many other international organizations. One of the important countries with which Yugoslavia cooperated was India.

Since the beginning of the 1960s, as WHO fellows, Yugoslav epidemiologists and infectiologists have stayed in India, where a program for the eradication of endemic smallpox and compulsory vaccination had been in place since 1963. One of them was Dr. Miomir Kecmanovic (1921-1996), a prominent Serbian and Yugoslav physician, infectiologist, and long-time full professor at the Medical Faculty in Belgrade, employed at the Clinic for Tropical and Infectious Diseases. At the beginning of 1970, he was on a study stay in India, where he had direct insight into numerous cases of various infectious diseases, primarily smallpox. His experience proved to be extremely valuable when a smallpox epidemic broke out in Yugoslavia in March 1972, while working directly in the field, or the epicenter of the epidemic, in Kosovo and Metohija. At the end of the same year, at a scientific conference dedicated to the epidemic, Professor Kecmanovic and his colleague Dr. Šuvakovic, who had also stayed in India in 1963, presented papers on the clinical treatment of smallpox. Dr. Kecmanovic was also a member of the International Association of Infectiologists.

Note: The report is typed on a typewriter, probably by the author himself. There are a few corrections, which the author corrected himself, but some mistakes slipped through, such as: on page 4, there is an obvious typographical error regarding the dates: "1960" should be 1969, and "1979" should be 1970.

Prepared by: Lidija Opojevlić Hofman Archival adviser - head of the Department