At least 57 children, all under five years of age, were taken to a hospital in eastern India after they were mistakenly given hepatitis vaccines instead of polio immunisation drops, officials say.
Authorities have ordered a probe and suspended four health workers after the incident on Sunday in Arambagh in West Bengal state.
Hepatitis B vaccine, which is normally injected, was administered orally to children at state-run clinics, causing children to start vomiting and sweat profusely.
"Fifty-seven children who were administered the wrong vaccine were admitted to a local hospital," Biswaranjan Satpathy, director of state health services said.
"They were later discharged but we are getting reports of panic-stricken parents still getting children to the hospital for checkups," he said from the state capital Kolkata.
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"There is definite medical negligence as those in charge did not even check what they were administering to children," he said.
Broadcaster NDTV said a total of 114 children had been given the wrong vaccines in the region, some 80 kilometres north of Kolkata.
The hepatitis B vaccine should not cause any long-term harm to the health of the children, Apurva Ghose, director of the Kolkata-based Child Health Institute told the network.
