Twenty-five plaintiffs are taking Merck to task in a Zostavax shingles lawsuit, alleging the company marketed a vaccine that causes the disease it’s supposed to prevent.

The plaintiffs in the Zostavax shingles lawsuit raise allegations that they suffered severe adverse side effects and complications, including the development of herpes zoster, the very virus the vaccine is intended to prevent. The plaintiffs are residents of the state of Florida.

According to the Zostavax shingles lawsuit, the plaintiffs were inoculated with the Zostavax vaccine for the long-term prevention of shingles. However, after being inoculated, they allege they were diagnosed with shingles. This allegedly led them to suffer severe adverse side effects including emotional, economic, and physical damages, the Zostavax shingles lawsuit states.

Plaintiff Peggy D. says that she was inoculated with the Zostavax vaccine at a Walgreens pharmacy located in North Fort Meyers, Fla. She says she was later treated by her medical physician for a vesicular outbreak that became diagnosed as herpes zoster or shingles. She alleges she suffered painful injuries and damages and “required extensive medical care and treatment.” She says that she “will continue to suffer significant medical expenses, and pain and suffering, and other damages.”

Plaintiff Ernest M. is a resident of Middleburg, Fla. who was inoculated with the Zostavax vaccine at the Naval Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla. He was recommended the vaccine for routine adult health maintenance with the intended purpose to prevent shingles. He says he later contracted a persistent strain of herpes zoster and was also treated for a vesicular outbreak that became diagnosed as shingles. He says he has also suffered painful injuries and damages, and has required extensive treatment and medical care.

Plaintiff Marc R., a resident of Saint Augustine, Florida, says he was inoculated with Zostavax on Nov. 7, 2011 as a matter of routine adult health maintenance. However, he too alleges he subsequently contracted the herpes strain and began being treated for shingles on Sept. 15, 2016. He says he was prescribed medications for pain management, but treatment also included follow-ups for a vesicular outbreak that became diagnosed as herpes zoster ophthalmicus, a “varicella- zoster virus infection that involves the eye.”

Overview: Filing a Zostavax Shingles Lawsuit

The Zostavax shingles vaccine has been associated with a serious number of adverse side effects and reactions, including causing patients to develop shingles. The vaccine is composed of a weakened chickenpox virus that is administered to adults over the age of 50 and helps the immune system fight off shingles.

However, within only a few months after being inoculated with the vaccine, patients report they have developed shingles and other vaccine reactions. Adverse side effects reported have included nausea, muscle pain, joint pain, fever, and headaches, in addition to other more serious complications such as:

• Shingles after vaccine
• Myelitis (spinal cord inflammation)
• Postherpetic neuralgia (pain after shingles blisters pass)
• Vision problems (eye infections; retinal damage; blindness)
• Hearing loss
• Autoimmune disorders (Guillain-Barre Syndrome, Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating, Meniere’s Disease, Polyneuropathy)
• Cardiovascular event
• Stroke
• Pneumonia
• Congestive heart failure
• Bell’s Palsy (facial paralysis)
• Vasculitis
• Serious neurological disease/disorder

The Zostavax Shingles Lawsuit is Case No. 8:18-cv-01800-EAK-JSS, in the Circuit Court of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit for Hillsborough County, Florida.