The United States Government Does Not Plan to Immunize Immigrant Detainees Against Influenza
August 21, 2019
"The U.S. won’t be vaccinating migrant families in holding centers ahead of this year’s flu season, despite calls from doctors to boost efforts to fight the infection that’s killed at least three children at detention facilities in the past year. “In general, due to the short-term nature of CBP holding and the complexities of operating vaccination programs, neither CBP nor its medical contractors administer vaccinations to those in our custody,” a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman said in an emailed statement."
From a public health perspective, this is troubling because people concentrated in high numbers -- and in conditions -- represent the perfect situation for many communicable diseases to spread quite quickly. As it is, where immigrant families are in a holding pattern while waiting for a decision on their applications for asylum into the United States. (Many Latin American countries do not use the chickenpox vaccine.) Other communicable diseases are soon to follow and enter the country with them.
Another problem with lack of prevention (and hygiene and sanitation) is that these facilities are not a closed system. Not only are detainees coming in and out, or being sent to other facilities, but the staff manning the facilities have direct interaction with the detainees and then go out into their respective communities and home to their families. This whole situation is begging for the detention centers to become major focal points for disease transmission, epicenters of outbreaks.
A proper infection prevention scheme for these facilities begins with proper hygiene and sanitation, so we hope that the deficiencies discovered recently are being addressed. Clean water and soap prevent all sorts of communicable diseases for which we don't have vaccines licensed for use in the United States, like norovirus or cholera. Next, proper tracking of who is coming in and who is leaving a facility, along with a full medical examination will identify cases of disease who need to be distanced from the rest of the detainees. will also aid in following-up with people after their release so that, should they become ill, the facility where they came from can be contacted and followed-up for more cases.
While the situation at the border is a political and social problem with complex solutions that are being hotly debated in and out of government institutions. Vaccine-preventable diseases are not as complex to prevent. Clean water, hot food, soap and immunizations would go a long way to making sure that the detention facilities don't become incubators for diseases that could make people sick far beyond their fences and gates. This is not hard to do, and it would have benefits for public health in general and the health of people seeking refuge in particular.