A new patient has joined growing multi-district litigation claiming that the Zostavax vaccine gave her shingles, instead of preventing the disease as intended.

The Zostavax lawsuit was filed by plaintiff Christine A. against Merck & Co. Inc. and Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., makers of the Zostavax vaccine. Andrews says that she was inoculated with Zostavax on Aug. 24, 2019 for routine health maintenance, to prevent shingles.

She says that in December 2017, she suffered serious injuries including “severe nerve and muscle pain and paralysis, neurological injuries, Bell’s Palsy, stroke, and vision loss.” Allegedly, she had to be hospitalized for her injuries, and the symptoms lasted for months. She claims that these injuries were caused by Zostvax.

The Zostavax shingles lawsuit says that Christine was not just injured physically: her ability to function was affected, and her quality of life was reduced because of these injuries and stresses that she has suffered mental and emotional distress because of her injuries. She says that as a result of Zostavax, she now has physical limitations that she did not have before she was given the vaccine.

The Zostavax lawsuit goes on to assert that Christine also has suffered economic damages in the form of medical expenses, loss of accumulation, and other expenses. The lawsuit says that many other people who were inoculated with the vaccine have suffered similar damages. Christine aims to hold Merck accountable for these injuries, and along with others in the growing multi-district litigation, seeks damages for herself and other affected individuals.

The Zostavax shingles lawsuit explains that In most vaccines, a dead version of the virus is used to acquaint a patient’s immune system to a virus. However, a weekend form of the virus is used in some vaccines, instead of a dead form. A weakened form of a virus is called an attenuated virus, says Medicine Net.  

Christine explains that the benefits of using an attenuated virus in a vaccine as opposed to a dead vaccine are that because the attenuated virus is stronger than the dead one, a person’s immune system is forced to develop a stronger defense against the virus to defend itself. A vaccine with an attenuated virus is supposed to help patients gain the strongest immune defense possible against a virus, says vaccines.gov.  

Allegedly, Zostavax is an attenuated version of the shingles virus, the VZV virus. Christine says that Merck knew or should have known that when attenuated the VZV virus has a tendency to strengthen again, which can cause a patient to develop shingles from the vaccine itself.

To support her claim that Merck knew or should have known that Zostavax can cause shingles, and put patients at risk in the interest of profits, Christine notes that Shingrix, another vaccine on the market since 2017 does not use an attenuated virus, but instead is made from a glycoprotein on the surface of the VZV. This virus allegedly cannot give a patient shingles and is much more effective than Zoztvax.

The Zostavax shingles lawsuit goes on to say that Merck possessed or should have possessed knowledge of how to create a virus-like Shingrix, but instead chose to put patients at risk by marketing Zostavax.

The Zostavax Shingles Lawsuit is Case No. 2:19-cv-04789-HB, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.