A woman from California alleges she suffered serious shingles shot adverse reactions soon after receiving the Zostavax shot.

The woman’s Zostavax lawsuit is joining a growing multidistrict litigation (MDL), in which other patients allege Merck & Co. allegedly failed to warn about possible complications related to this shingles vaccine.

Plaintiff Coralee L. allegedly received the Zostavax vaccine for typical treatment purposes in April 2017, and suffered serious side effects soon after. According to the Zostavax lawsuit, Coralee had developed serious conditions including endotheliitis and herpes keratitis.

Endotheliitis is an immune response within the endothelium in blood vessels that causes them to become inflamed. This is a potentially serious eye condition that can evolve into edema of the surrounding tissue, which can cause pain. If this occurs in the cornea, endotheliitis can cause permanent blindness.

According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, herpes keratitis is another condition that affects the eyes, which is a viral infection caused by the herpes simplex virus (HSV). Both of these conditions can cause serious vision damage and severely impact the patient’s life.

It is important to note that at the time Coralee was prescribed the Zostavax shot, she says she was allegedly not informed that vision loss was included in the potential shingles hot adverse reactions.

Overview of Zostavax Complications

The Zostavax shot contains a weakened chickenpox virus, which is used to prevent the development of shingles.

This condition is thought to be caused by a dormancy chickenpox virus, which means patients who have previously had chickenpox are at the highest risk of developing shingles. The Zostavax shot has been on the market since 2006 and has been the primary shingles choice until the recent release of Shingrix.

According to the CDC, Zostavax has been shown to reduce the risk of shingles in adults by 51 percent in a study of 38,000 patients. While this vaccine has helped numerous patients, it has become associated with very serious Zostavax adverse reactions.

According to the FDA, patients have reported incidents of blindness, paralysis, brain damage, and death, which prompted the agency to issue two black box warnings to Zostavax labels. In 2016, these complications were expanded to included potential vision damage due to eye inflammation.

Other injury reports submitted to the FDA’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting (VAERS) include incidents of gastrointestinal disorders, rashes, arthralgia, myalgia, anaphylactic reactions, and necrotizing retinitis.

Even though these complications can be devastating to patients, Merck allegedly failed to disclose the severity of these shingles shot adverse reactions to the public.

This was allegedly the case with Coralee, with the Zostavax patient booklet stating she could suffer local vaccine reactions, fever, joint pain, and other mild vaccine reactions.

At all times relevant, Coralee and her physician had relied on the vaccine information provided by Merck and had no reason to believe she was at risk for any serious reactions.

Coralee’s Zostavax lawsuit is joining MDL No. 2848, where it will stand alongside other claims alleging similar shingles vaccine reactions. Coralee is seeking a multitude of damages, including counts of negligence and failure to warn.

This Zostavax Lawsuit is Case No. 2:19-cv-01389-HB, in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Pennsylvania.