Officials have been working to control outbreaks of pneumonia and swine flu among the unaccompanied children who illegally crossed into the U.S. at the Mexico border, reports The Washington Free Beacon.
Nearly 600 children being housed at the Naval Base Ventura County, located north of Los Angeles, have been felled by illness, originally thought to be deadly bacterial streptococcal meningitis, one official close to the issue told the Free Beacon, though officials confirmed no one was diagnosed with that illness.
Last week, two cases of swine flu were diagnosed in unaccompanied immigrant children — one being housed in Texas and one at the California base. Naval officials stopped transfers into and out of the facility in an attempt to quell the outbreak along with quarantining ill children, the Free Beacon reported. At least one of the children diagnosed with swine flu had been transferred from Nogales, Arizona, officials confirmed.
“Preliminary reports indicate that several unaccompanied minors in the shelter had become ill with what appears to be pneumonia and influenza,” Health and Human Services spokesman Kenneth J. Wolfe said in a statement to the Free Beacon. He also stated that the illnesses “likely pose little or no risk to the general public.”
Sick children were transferred to a hospital for treatment, the Free Beacon reported.
• Jennifer Pompi can be reached at jpompi@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.