Children given shock TB vaccine overdose 2500 times higher than permitted

11 children were flown to Moscow from the Far East of Russia for specialist hospital treatment following the erroneous school injections by a doctor and nurse.

Several dozen more are undergoing hospital treatment in the Primorskiy region. Experts say the medical consequences are uncertain since such an excess dosage has never occurred before.

Doctors deny the children are at risk of contracting TB but admit that a 'severe toxic and allergic reaction' has been identified in two of the pupils. Several children complained of severe headaches and red, inflamed skin in the area around the injection. Governor Vladimir Miklyshevskiy fired director of regional health department Oleg Bubnov after 29 children fell ill with TB vaccine complications.

'In the rural school, instead of making an injection of soluble tuberculin in doses that cannot be mistaken, the medical staff decided to dissolve tuberculin by themselves using a powder,' said Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova. 

'They made a mistake - a technical error - using a dose bigger than it should have been. Two children have a severe toxic and allergic reaction to the wrongly made Mantoux test. I has nothing to do with tuberculosis.'

The error came in school medical tests of children aged 11-16 in Novosysoyevka village, Yakovlevskiy district. Ahead of the tests, parents were not informed and their written permissions were not received, it was reported.

The doctor and the nurse used dry tuberculin which was in direct violation of the rules as it could only have been used in hospital conditions. Dosage of the medication was 2500 times higher than it should have been, it was disclosed. The 11 children sent to Moscow are expected to remain under observation for three weeks in the capital. 

The governor said: 'The health department's work must be considered unsatisfactory.

'The situation in Yakovlevskiy district is a failure by the health department.'