Various coverage on this incident involving Trevisac - a strain of the MMR vaccine used in Ukraine in 2008.
This report from RIA Novosti:
"KIEV, May 18 (RIA Novosti) - A total of 92 people, including 87 children, were hospitalized in eastern Ukraine as of early Sunday after measles vaccination, Ukraine's emergencies ministry said.
On May 13, a 17-year-old boy died after measles inoculation in the Donetsk Region. Two days later, over 60 people in eastern Ukraine were hospitalized after vaccination. A total of over 20,000 people in the region received the same vaccine.
Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko said he was concerned over the teenager's death and demanded from the Ukrainian health ministry to take all measures to prevent such instances in the future."
By now, measles immunization has been halted in Ukraine.
Another report from Russia Today:
Ukraine halts deadly vaccination
The Ukrainian Ministry of health has called a moratorium on mandatory vaccination against measles and rubella. The President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, has insisted that vaccination is carried out on a voluntary basis only. This comes after more than 100 pupils were taken to hospital, one of whom died after having been injected with a vaccine from India.
Last week Ukraine was shaken by the news of a teenager's death. Senior pupil Anton Tishchenko died in intensive care in a hospital in the city of Kramatorsk in Donetsk Region after he'd been given the vaccine against measles and rubella (Tresivac ZA 26-X). Later, dozens more teenagers who'd received the same medication were rushed to hospital in Kramatorsk alone. Similar situations were reported in the cities of Donetsk, Kharkov and Kremenchug amongst others.
By Friday night a total of 87 people had been admitted to hospital with the same symptoms: high blood pressure, splitting headache, high temperature and sore throat.
Medical officials urged journalists not to spread unverified frightening stories. They said that the vaccine from the Indian enterprise Serum Institute of India, which had been delivered to Ukraine as humanitarian aid by UNICEF, is not just safe but considered to be the best in the world. They said this vaccine was certificated and registered in Ukraine, but never showed the above mentioned documents to the citizens.
Schoolmates of the deceased Anton Tishchenko say they were told that the vaccination was obligatory and urgent. Therefore many of them did not even have the time to inform their parents about the vaccination.
We'll do everything not to lose any more lives, said Vasily Knyazevich, the head of the Ministry of health. In turn, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has ordered a thorough investigation into the purchasing process of the medication.
Here is some information on the vaccine itself from the Serum Institute website. In the news reports we are not told that this an MMR vaccine.
COMPOSITION
TRESIVAC" is prepared from live attenuated strains of Edmonston-Zagreb measles virus propagated on human diploid cell culture, L-Zagreb mumps virus propagated on chick embryo fibroblast cells and Wistar RA 27/3 rubella virus propagated on human diploid cell culture.
The reconstituted vaccine contains, in single dose of 0.5 ml. not less than
1000 CCID50 of measles virus
5000 CCID50 of mumps virus
1000 CCID50 of rubella virus.
Diluent : Sterile water for injection.
The vaccine meets the requirements of USP and WHO when tested by the methods outlined in USP and WHO, TRS 840 (1994).
More quotes from a report on the Kyiv Post website:
Teenager's death spurs vaccination questions, fears
...Anton Tyshchenko, a 17-year old from Kramatorsk, died from a measles vaccine in May this year. The serum was developed in India and apparently wasn't tested in Ukraine, according to the findings of two investigation commissions. They also found the boy did not actually need a vaccination at all because he had already been immunized twice....
...Tyshchenko was vaccinated in school on May 12. A few hours later, he started feeling sick and developed a fever. He was hospitalized the same night, but died eight hours after the vaccine was injected. There is a direct cause-effect relation between Anton Tyshchenko's death and his vaccination for measles and rubella, Prosecutor General Oleksandr Medvedko said in his interview with Fakty daily last month....
...WHO and UNICEF, however, insisted there was nothing wrong with the vaccine. The measles and rubella vaccine used in Ukraine is pre-qualified by WHO and produced in accordance with the highest international standards by the Serum Institute of India, the largest producer of measles and rubella vaccine globally, wrote Maryanna Zaichykova, a communications assistant at UNICEF Ukraine, in response to questions from the Kyiv Post. Zaichykova said that the septic shock that caused the teenagers death was unrelated to immunization....
...As more gruesome details about mass vaccination come out into public light, more Ukrainians are turning away from vaccinations. Some data suggests that the number of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children has grown two or three-fold this year, and even more in Kyiv.
Vyacheslav Kostylev, head of the League of Civil Rights Protection, a non-government organization, said the number of people who ask for legal help on how to refuse vaccinating their children is growing...