there were 34 countries affected with smallpox. By 1970, we were down to 18 countries. 1974, we
were down to five countries. But in that year, smallpox exploded throughout India. And India was the
place where smallpox made its last stand. In 1974, India had a population of 600 million. There are 21
linguistic states in India, which is like saying 21 different countries. There are 20 million people on the
road at any time in buses and trains, walking, 500,000 villages, 120 million households, and none of them
wanted to report if they had a case of smallpox in their house because they thought that smallpox was the
visitation of a deity, Shitala Mata, the cooling mother, and it was wrong to bring strangers into your house
when the deity was in the house. No incentive to report smallpox.