Many patients who get the Zostavax shingles vaccine report shingles vaccine side effects. These shingles vaccine side effects may be serious in nature and can affect patients adversely.

The Zostavax shingles vaccine is intended to prevent shingles in patients who are at risk for developing that condition. It is thought that shingles may occur in people who have, at one time, had chickenpox. The Zostavax vaccine is administered to people over the age of fifty and contains a weakened version of the chickenpox virus.

Many shingles vaccine side effects have already been reported by users.

What is Shingles?

Shingles, also known as herpes zoster, is most likely caused by the dormant chickenpox virus. It is a painful rash brought on by the varicella-zoster virus. It can appear as a red rash or as a stripe of painful blisters. These blisters normally occur on the torso, neck or face.

Most cases of shingles clear up in less than three weeks, but it is a common condition. It is estimated that one-third of Americans will have shingles at one point in their lives.

Symptoms of shingles include the red rash on the face and ears, itching, blisters filled with fluid, rash along the torso and spine, fever, muscle weakness, fatigue, and headache.

Shingles Vaccine Side Effects

Most people understand that there may be minor shingles vaccine side effects including local reaction to shingles injection, headaches and fever, joint and muscle pain, nausea, and possibly chickenpox or shingles after the vaccine.

But many patients have reported much more serious shingles vaccine side effects. Those who get the Zostavax vaccine may experience some of these major shingles vaccine side effects:

• Myelitis (spinal cord inflammation)
• Pain continuing after shingles blisters subside
• Hearing loss and vision problems including blindness, eye infections, and retinal damage
• Autoimmune disorders such as Guillain-Barre Syndrome, Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating, Polyneuropathy or Meniere’s Disease
• Stroke
• Cardiovascular event including congestive heart failure
• Pneumonia
• facial paralysis in the form of Bell’s Palsy
• Vasculitis
• Shingles after vaccine

Most of the time, those who experience major shingles vaccine side effects do so within half a year from receiving the vaccine.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA, has also included other adverse reactions including anaphylactic reactions, gastrointestinal disorders, arthralgia, myalgia and necrotizing retinitis. These were reported to the FDA’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

Filing a Shingle Vaccine Side Effects Lawsuit

Some patients who experience serious shingles vaccine side effects have filed Zostavax lawsuits against Merck, the makers of the Zostavax vaccine. Even though in 2016, the warning label was expanded to include vision loss, plaintiffs often claim that Merck did not do enough to warn the public about the possible adverse reactions to their vaccine. Additionally, patients have been complaining about Zostavax problems since 2006, lawsuits claim.

If you have been affected adversely by the Zostavax vaccine and have developed serious shingles vaccine side effects, you may be eligible to file a Zostavax lawsuit.

A Zostavax lawsuit can help a patient recover the costs of lost wages, medical expenses, disability and damages for wrongful death.