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250 Immigrant Children Accidentally Injected With Adult Vaccine Doses At Immigration Detention Center

Workers at the South Texas Family Residential Center, the largest detention center in the nation, mistakenly administered adult doses of the hepatitis A vaccine to 250 immigrant children.

An adult version of the hepatitis A vaccine is double that of the children’s version. All 250 children are being monitored for side effects, but according to ICE representative Richard Rocha, who was quoted by the International Business Times, “No side effects caused by incorrect prescription are expected.”

No side effects caused by incorrect prescription are expected.

No side effects have been reported, and for the next five days everyone affected will be monitored. The trio of the Office of Health Affairs, the Department of Homeland Security, and ICE are looking into the error and ways to keep it from occurring again. About 100 people in the U.S. die each year from liver failure caused by hepatitis A, the LA Times reported.

Hepatitis A is a liver disease that can spread to people who aren’t properly vaccinated. Generally the vaccine is harmless when taken, but is not fully without its side effects.

The detention center, which resides in Dilly, is the largest of three detention centers that immigrant mothers and children who enter the country illegally. The population limit is 2,400, and its currently sitting at 2,000 — all of whom are women and children. The center was built back in December of 2014 and has since come under fire by activists and members of Congress. Some of that negative attention its received has come from Bethany Carson, the immigration policy researcher and organizer for Grassroots Leadership.

The center is located 70 miles southwest of San Antonio, and houses detainees of the former detention center in Artesia, New Mexico, which was closed by the Obama Administration.

Immigration has been a hot topic in the United States, in some ways spurred by President Obama’s major change to the immigration policy. What are your thoughts on U.S. immigration policy?

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