[Dog Gone]

The residents of Naro Banda, a rural area in the district, told this correspondent that a majority of the children in the village had suffered from smallpox a few years back.

It HAS to be chickenpox, not smallpox.

[Endeavor]

Yep. Or cowpox - that's the variant the milkmaids got and where Jenner got the idea to use scrapings of cowpox to formulate his smallpox vaccine.

[Sabertooth]

It HAS to be chickenpox, not smallpox.

Agreed.

Notice also that no fatalities are mentioned.

[OReilly]

It HAS to be chickenpox, not smallpox.

I would agree that the world media and the health organizations all around the world should be indicted for stupidity if it really is, but I would not rule it out, after what we have learned about our supposed almighty powers that are responsible for our safety.

[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.