According to a Zostavax lawsuit filed last summer, the shingles vaccine may result in a number of adverse side effects ranging from shingles to nerve damage.

A Zostavax lawsuit filed in July 2017 alleged that multiple patients suffered medical problems and adverse side effects after receiving the shingles vaccine. The plaintiffs argue that Merck & Co., the vaccine’s manufacturer, should have warned patients of the potential side effects.

The Zostavax vaccine is an injection containing a weakened chickenpox virus. The vaccine is supposed to boost the immune system in people over the age of 50 and protect against shingles, which is thought to be caused by a reaction to the dormant chickenpox virus. Side effects reported by Merck include headaches, local reaction to the injection, fever, joint pain, muscle pain, nausea, and chickenpox or shingles after the vaccine.

However, many patients have reported serious adverse reactions to the vaccine with long term problems. Adverse side effects have allegedly included spinal cord inflammation, postherpetic neuralgia, blindness, eye infections, retinal damage, hearing loss, autoimmune disorders, stroke, heart attack, facial paralysis, serious neurological disease, and more. Adverse reactions typically present themselves within six months after the vaccine is administered, but long term injuries have also been reported.

Since the vaccine’s approval in 2006, there have allegedly been over 1,000 submissions of serious adverse events reports made to the FDA’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting Systems. Of the 1,111 submission made before September 2015, 36 of the reports included deaths. In response to the reports, the drug’s warnings were expanded by the FDA in 2016 to include potential vision damage caused by inflammation of the eye.

The Zostavax lawsuit argues patients are developing adverse side effects because the vaccine does not contain a weakened chicken pox virus and instead contains a live version of the virus that is not appropriately weakened.

According to the complaint, “a risk of using a live virus vaccine is that it is not weakened enough.” In the case that the live virus is not sufficiently weakened, plaintiffs claim there is a higher risk that the patient will develop the disease it is meant to prevent.

The vaccine’s effectiveness is also called into question by the Zostavax lawsuit.

“The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (‘CDC’) published that the Zostavax vaccine wanes in efficacy within five years, having almost no remaining preventative effects after seven years. This allegation is not included on any labeling or packaging literature to alert users of decreased efficacy of the vaccine with time,” the lawsuit states.

The plaintiffs claim that they were not sufficiently warned about the risks and effectiveness of the vaccine and aim to hold Merck accountable for damage caused by the injection.

“If the plaintiffs were equipped with the knowledge of the defective condition and potential harms of the Zostavax vaccine, they would not have purchased it and agreed to have it injected into their body,” the Zostavax lawsuit states.

The Zostavax Lawsuit is Case No. MID-L-004177-17 in the Superior Court of New Jersey, County of Middlesex.