A man has filed a Zostavax lawsuit alleging that a shingle vaccine reaction caused him to suffer a stroke.

Plaintiff Eldon S. says he received the Zostavax vaccination in January 2017 as part of routine health maintenance to prevent the onset of shingles, also known as herpes zoster.

According to the complaint, Eldon “suffered from focal weakness with a left-sided facial droop and right-sided gaze” shortly after receiving the shingles vaccine. He suffered a stroke, which he argues is one of many serious Zostavax side effects. 

Shingles is a disease marked by a painfully stinging red rash that normally follows a path of nerve endings. A reactivation of the chickenpox virus (varicella roster), shingles appears when stress or a suppressed immune system allows the virus to awaken from its dormant state.

After a person has chickenpox, the virus never leaves the patient’s body. Instead, the virus settles into the nervous system and remains dormant until it is reactivated as shingles. If someone gets a shot to avoid the condition but instead has a shingle vaccine reaction, the symptoms could be severe.

As people get older, their immune systems diminish, which makes the elderly more susceptible to shingles. Merck & Co. and McKesson Corp. created the Zostavax shingles vaccine that was FDA-approved in 2006 to protect people ages 50 and over against shingles.

Zostavax is a live-attenuated virus vaccine, which means it allegedly contains the live virus that has been weakened enough that it shouldn’t cause shingles but retains enough strength to spur immunity. Any live virus vaccine that remains too strong can increase the risk of causing the very disease the vaccine was intended to prevent or might cause other dangerous side effects.

Allegations of Shingle Vaccine Reaction Lawsuit

Zostavax is a more potent version of Varivax, the chickenpox vaccine made by Merck. Varivax contains a minimum of 1,350 PFU (plaque-forming units) of the virus. Zostavax contains a minimum of 19,400 PFU.

According to the Zostavax reaction lawsuit, “Merck failed to exercise due care in the labeling of Zostavax and failed to issue to consumers and/or their healthcare providers adequate warnings as to the risk of serious bodily injury, including viral infection, resulting from use.”

In addition to potentially causing the vaccine recipient to develop an extremely virulent version of shingles, Zostavax allegedly can cause other serious, dangerous shingle vaccine reactions, including problems with the nervous system.

Merck is accused of knowing that Zostavax could initiate a dangerous shingle vaccine reaction, but warned only of a possible itching or redness at the injection site.

The Zostavax MDL alleges Merck downplayed the potentially serious side effects of the shingles vaccine in order to increase sales and accuses the company of placing its desire for profits ahead of consumers’ safety and health.

Eldon maintains he would not be subject to his current physical limitations that also cause him emotional distress if he had not received the Zostavax vaccine.

The Shingle Vaccine Reaction Lawsuit is Case No. 2:18-cv-05000-HB and is part of the Zostavax MDL, In re: Zostavax (Zoster Vaccine Live) Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2848, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.