After feeling feverish for a couple of days and developing a rash, he recovered,[7] likely because he had been vaccinated two months earlier.

[8] On March 3, Latif Mumdžić, a thirty-year-old teacher, who had just arrived in Đakovica to attend school, fell ill.

When Mumdžić visited the local medical center two days later, doctors attempted to treat his fever with penicillin (smallpox is a virus, so this was ineffective).

On March 9, Mumdžić was shown to medical students and staff as a case of an atypical reaction to penicillin, which was a plausible explanation for his condition.

On the following day, Mumdžić suffered massive internal bleeding and, despite efforts to save his life, died that evening.

Leading experts on smallpox were flown in to help, including Donald Henderson and Don Francis.

[15] The Yugoslav government received international praise for the successful containment of the epidemic, which was one of the finest hours for Donald Henderson and the WHO, as well as one of the crucial steps in the eradication of smallpox.

[14] In 1982, Serbian director Goran Marković made the film Variola Vera about a hospital under quarantine during the epidemic.