[Dog Gone]

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

[Endeavor]

Could be, but the article go on to describe the fatality rate of smallpox. It would be helpful to get an accurate report of clinical symptoms, number of deaths, etc.

[JohnBovenmyer]

Smallpox used to be a childhood disease because everyone born earlier was either immune from surviving it or had died from it. It probably last occurred there 30 years ago. Everyone born since would be susceptible, i.e. not just children would be affected by smallpox now. It probably is the historically most common misdiagnosis, chickenpox.