A Pennsylvania couple filed a lawsuit against pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co., alleging that the company’s Zostavax vaccine, meant to prevent a shingles outbreak, actually caused the patient to develop shingles.

The plaintiff, Leroy S., received the Zostavax vaccine on March 15, 2013, in order to prevent shingles. However, in January 2017, Leroy says he suffered from a serious shingles outbreak, causing issues like chronic pain, rash, and lesions on his body. According to his lawsuit, the shingles outbreak was a direct result of his vaccination with Zostavax in 2013.

Leroy claims that Merck knew about the risk of shingles outbreak linked with its Zostavax vaccine, but failed to give adequate warning about this risk, resulting in his injuries as well as medical expenses.

Leroy filed his Zostavax shingles outbreak lawsuit on Sept. 21, 2018, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. The lawsuit was filed on a number of counts, including negligence, design defect, failure to warn, breach of express and implied warranties, and several others. Leroy’s wife Barbara also filed on one count of loss of consortium.

Basics of Zostavax

Zostavax
 is a shingles vaccine manufactured by Merck & Co. The U.S. Food and Drug administration (FDA) approved Zostavax in 2006 for use in patients 60 and over. (Shingles is also known as herpes zoster.)

But even though Zostavax is supposed to prevent shingles, the vaccine has actually been linked with a risk of shingles outbreak. Of course, any medication will have the risk of certain side effects, but they must be included in the drug’s warnings. The Zostavax label warned of a number of side effects, including headaches, joint pain, fever, and nausea. But some patients who have taken Zostavax claim that they were not adequately warned about the risk of a shingles outbreak associated with the vaccine.

Have You Suffered a Shingles Outbreak from Zostavax?

The FDA has recently updated the Zostavax warning label to include vision damage from eye inflammation, but other side effects reported after use of Zostavax include hearing loss, neurological disorders, vision loss/blindness, paralysis, and wrongful death, among others.

Patients have also claimed that the Zostavax vaccine can in some cases actually cause a shingles outbreak instead of preventing it.

Side effects of Zostavax usually surface somewhere between zero and 6 months after administration of the vaccine. It is still possible for neurological damage or other more long-term injuries to appear later on.

Hundreds of adverse event reports have been filed over severe side effects of the Zostavax shingles vaccine, which include several deaths.

Filing a Zostavax Shingles Outbreak Lawsuit

If you or a loved one have suffered from a shingles outbreak or other serious side effects caused by Zostavax, you may be able to add your own lawsuit to the growing pile of litigation against Merck. While filing a lawsuit cannot undo the damage caused by these complications, and can it can’t bring a loved one back to life, but it can at the very least help to compensate for the financial costs incurred by medical expenses, lost wages, and more.

The Shingles Outbreak Lawsuit is Case No. 3:18-cv-14176-PGS-TJB, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.