The Threat of Outbreaks in US Border Patrol Detainment Centers
Twelve minutes before the arrival of Christmas, medical staff at a county hospital in New Mexico declared an 8-year-old boy dead.1 He had arrived there unresponsive less than 1 hour before, his second visit to the hospital that day. It was the end of a long journey for Felipe Gomez-Alonzo. Early in December 2018, Felipe and his father departed their village in rural Guatemala for the United States.2 On December 18, US Customs and Border Protection apprehended them at the El Paso, Texas, border. During the next 6 days, US Customs and Border Protection detained both Felipe and his father, eventually transferring them to a Border Patrol station in Alamogordo, New Mexico, a city of 30 000 people.1
At 9 am on Christmas Eve, a US Border Patrol processing agent noticed that Felipe was coughing.1 Border Patrol agents transported him and his father to Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center for evaluation of influenza symptoms. Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center is a small county hospital shared by active-duty personnel and residents in Alamogordo. The extent of Felipe’s evaluation at Gerald Champion is unclear. Was an influenza test done? New Mexico had influenza cases since October, and for the previous week, the state department of health had characterized influenza activity as widespread.3Felipe had a fever of …
Address correspondence to Mark A. Travassos, MD, MSc, Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 685 W Baltimore St, Room 480, Baltimore, MD 21201. E-mail: mtravass@som.umaryland.edu
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