57 children hospitalised in India after given wrong vaccine

KOLKATA: Almost 60 children were taken to hospital in eastern India after they were mistakenly instructed to swallow a hepatitis B vaccine instead of polio drops, officials said Monday.

The children started vomiting and sweating after they were orally given hepatitis B vaccine, which is normally injected, at clinics in a village in West Bengal state on Sunday, the health officials said.

Some 120 children in total swallowed the medication at the clinics, set up to administer polio vaccine drops as part of a campaign to eradicate the disease, before health workers discovered the mistake, said Biswaranjan Sathpaty, director of West Bengal Health Services.

"A total of 57 children started vomiting immediately after they were administered the wrong vaccine," Sathpaty told.

They were taken to a local hospital in Arambagh for treatment and have since been discharged, Sathpaty said.

Doctors and officials were quoted by local media as saying the hepatitis B vaccine would not cause any long-term harm, but the mishap could deter parents from allowing their children to be vaccinated in future.