This is the first aired episode with a "Produced by Norman Macdonnell" credit. Beginning with episode 27, "Cooter," Macdonnell had been credited as associate producer under Charles Marquis Warren. With his end credit missing, it looks like Warren is no longer associated with the program.
The John Smith in this show can't be the John Smith from Laramie. Laramie's John Smith was born in 1931; he'd have been 25 in 1956. The John Smith here is a skinny 15 year old kid, like the other boy in this episode.
This show really doesn't properly address a woman deliberately giving a boy a deadly disease. I don't think Matt Dillon would really be ok with that. Also how the woman gave the boy the disease is really contrived. Days earlier the boy was in her house threatening to burn her house down; would the boy really come by days later and ask for a drink of water?