Doctor Lawrence Brilliant and Doctor Isao Arita, Chief, Smallpox Eradication Programme, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, visited West Bengal during the autumn of 1973 in order to initiate the first trial of the smallpox eradication program, namely, a statewide search for hidden cases in a population of sixty million. Eighteen months of intensive work produced a final result of the recording of the last smallpox case in India; the date of onset of rash was May 24, 1975. No more cases have been detected.

Lawrence B. Brilliant is associate professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. He is an executive officer ofNetwork Technologies, Incorporated, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The World Health Organization requested that Doctor Brilliant write this management case study.