Smallpox Epidemic Rapidly Spreading In Pakistan Province

Dawn.com ^ | 6/9/2002 | Muqaddam Khan

[Alouette]

I'm guessing that it's chicken pox. The story keeps referring to kids.

You could be right. Many years ago, a friend living overseas came down with a rash and fever. The non-English-speaking doctor who treated him said "You have this little pox" which freaked this guy out because he thought the doctor was telling him that he had smallpox. It turned out that the medical name for chicken pox is (I think) varicella or "little pox" and the medical name for smallpox is variola (medium sized pox?). "Large pox" as everyone knows, is syphilis.

[Cascadians]

There are also reports of "smallpox" "outbreaks" in India:

Three die from Smallpox fury in Barachatti Village

[hlth] Shift in U.S. Smallpox Vaccination Policy Recommended (2 pages, and many other threads with breaking smallpox news on TimeBomb2000 Forum

" Three die from Smallpox fury in Barachatti Village

Barachatti 4 June, (Dainik Jagran). In Patiauna village of Vinda Council in Barachatti block a dreadful outbreak of smallpox is raging. Due to the smallpox so far three children have died and about a dozen children are in its grip. So far in order to treat and cure the smallpox so far no steps have been taken by the medical department due to which the villagers are angry.

Gaya District Equality [Party] chairman Indradev Pasvan has asked the DM to not delay in distributing appropriate medications to the effected children and asked for suitable measures to be taken for protection from this sickness, so that the remaining children may be saved. Mr Paswan said that if this sickness was not quickly brought under control then it might turn into an epidemic."