A Zostavax lawsuit claims that the shingles vaccine caused a patient to develop shingles instead of preventing it.

Plaintiff Joseph B. states that he was given the Zostavax shingles vaccine on or about Aug. 14, 2014. He claims that the drug did not prevent shingles, as advertised, but caused him to contract shingles. This ultimately led to his Zostavax lawsuit. 

He claims that in August of that year, he was diagnosed with paresthesia or numbness and tingling of the limbs, and in September, was diagnosed with Guilliain-Barré Syndrome, a disorder in which a person’s immune system attacks their nerves, as well as a post-traumatic syndrome.

Allegedly, these conditions were developed in conjunction with shingles, which Joseph claims he contracted from the Zostavax vaccine.

The Zostavax shingles lawsuit states that shingles is a condition that develops when a dormant chickenpox virus is activated in a person. Allegedly, shingles vaccines inoculate a patient with a small amount of a dead chickenpox virus, allowing a patient to develop an immunity to the virus.

The Zostavax side effects lawsuit claims that the drug caused Joseph to develop shingles because the drug contained a live virus, and thus caused him to be infected with shingles instead of developing an immunity to it.

Allegedly, Zostavax used an “attenuated” version of the virus, meaning that it is live, but its potency is reduced. However, the Zostavax lawsuit states that it is well-known that a risk of using such a virus is that it can be “under-attenuated,” and too strong for a body to handle without side effects, and can possibly cause a patient to develop the disease. Allegedly, the under-attenuated varicella zoster (shingles) virus has been shown in a 2000 study to reactivate.

Additionally, the varicella zoster vaccine has been shown to not only reactivate but once reactivated, to recombine into more virulent strains of the virus, increasing a patient’s chance of contracting shingles from a vaccine using live varicella zoster virus. Joseph states that Zostavax is effectively a much more powerful version of Varivax, a chickenpox vaccine created by Merck and Company, the company that manufactured Zostavax. Allegedly, Varivax contains 1,350 plaque-forming units of the virus, while Zostavax contains 19,400 plaque-forming units.

The Zostavax lawsuit claims that because of the knowledge that the varicella virus was likely to reactivate, Merck and Company knew or should have known that Zostavax could cause shingles.

Joseph states that when Merck and Co., the makers of Zostavax, received approval for the drug from the Food and Drug Administration, they were required to conduct additional testing and clinical trials following the approval. These actions were allegedly supposed to further establish the safety of Zostavax. Though these studies were submitted for publication, independent researchers allegedly raised questions about the drug’s efficacy and safety, allegedly throwing into question the reliability of the tests.

Allegedly, information given to patients did not sufficiently warn them of the risks of developing shingles from the vaccine, though it did warn patients of other severe side effects, including nerve damage like the conditions Joseph claims to have experienced.

The Shingles Zostavax Lawsuit is Case No. 8:18-cv-00715-VMC-TGW, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division.