Age: 59.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: VARZOS, VARZOS
Symptoms: Rash, Skin lesion, Varicella virus test positive
Clinical narrative: This spontaneous report concerning a 59 year old female patient was received from the patient herself. Her medical history included shingles which had an onset of an unspecified date before December 2015. However, her concurrent conditions were not provided. On 22-DEC-2015, the patient was vaccinated with ZOSTAVAX (dose, dosage number, anatomical location, lot #, expiration date and route of administration were not reported). Information regarding her concomitant medications were not provided. On 22-DEC-2015, after the vaccination, the patient experienced pain and rash and in early January 2016, she was diagnosed with shingles by the physician. She was treated with prednisone (manufacturer unknown). Subsequently, the patient seemed to have recovered on an unknown date. On 14-FEB-2016, the patient experienced another rash. Following this, on 20-FEB-2016 (also reported as "on Saturday"), on waking up, she saw unspecified spots. Additionally, that on an unknown date the patient experienced "fire and temperature". The patient sought medical attention by contacting her physician. The shingles had resolved on an unknown date in 2016 while the rash and spots, at the time of reporting, had not resolved. Meanwhile, the outcomes of the event of "fire and temperature" was unknown. Nevertheless, the relatedness between the events and ZOSTAVAX was not provided. Follow up information has been received from a health care professional on 26-MAY-2016 and concerns the disabled patient with asthma. The patient was allergic to many foods, environments and animals. She had penicillin following which she had experienced a severe chickenpox as a child. She was vaccinated with a dose of tetanus toxoid vaccine in 1974 following which she experienced swelling all over. She had shingles 7-8 times since the age of 47. In approximately June 2015 (reported as 6 month ago), the patient had shingles. On 22-DEC-2015 the patient was given the first dose of ZOSTAVAX (which had a lot # of K020185) in the right deltoid. There were no any illnesses at time of vaccination. Concomitant therapies included tetanus toxoid vaccine. On the same day as the day of vaccination, the patient developed a rash at the injection site, right arm, legs, stomach and back. There were 20 lesions of rash. She also had pain (pain scale 10), her maximum temperature was 101 Fahrenheit (F). She was diagnosed with herpes zoster (HZ) on 22-DEC-2015. She required emergency room and admitted to the hospital on an unspecified date. On approximately 22-FEB-2016, 8 weeks later, there were 40 lesions all over body. On 09-MAR-2016, the samples were collected for lab tests. On 10-MAR-2016, varicella zoster antibody (AB) gamma M immunoglobulin (IgM) was 0.56 immune statue ration (ISR) (normal), which showed no significant level of detectable varicella-zoster virus IgM antibody. It was reported that appearance of an IgM antibody response normally occurred 7-14 days after the onset of disease. Testing immediately post-exposure was of no value without altering convalescent specimen. While the presence of IgM antibodies suggested current or recent infection, low levels of IgM antibodies might have occasionally persisted for more than 12 months post-infection or immunization. Such a residual IgM response might have been distinguished from an early IgM response to the infection by testing sera from patients, 2-3 weeks later, for changing levels of specific IgM antibodies. On the same day, varicella zoster gamma G immunoglobulin (IgG) was 2441.00 index (positive). The patient recovered from herpes zoster on an unspecified date in 2016. The reporter considered the herpes zoster to be serious as life threatening, required emergency room / doctor visit, required hospitalization and prolonged hospitalization. Additional information is not expected as all correspondence was received. Reporter, patient information, medical condition, lab tests, product, event and narrative were updated.