Age: 59.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: VARZOS, VARZOS
Symptoms: Activities of daily living impaired, Gait disturbance, Headache, Herpes zoster, Local swelling
Clinical narrative: This spontaneous report as received from a registered pharmacist refers to a 59 year old female patient who on 05-DEC-2013, was vaccinated with a dose of ZOSTAVAX (dose, route and lot number not reported). It was reported that on 18-MAR-2014, the patient came into the pharmacy with a prescription for acyclovir for treatment of shingles. At the time of the report, the patient's outcome was unknown. The relatedness for shingles and ZOSTAVAX was unknown. Follow up information has been received from the pharmacist and the patient. The demographic of the patient was: weight 110 (unit was not provided), height 63in. The patient had a history of chickenpox when she was a child, about 10 to 15 years ago. The patient also had a history of prior herpes zoster (HZ), which was "very infrequency". The location of the HZ was left corner of mouth and left eye in cornea. The pre-existing, allergies, birth defects, medical conditions included: high blood pressure, mitral valve prolapse, acid reflux, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, depression, sinusitis, allergic to ampicillin and actinomycin. It was reported there was no adverse events following prior vaccination. On 05-DEC-2013 (also reported as on 06-DEC-2013), the patient was vaccinated with the first dose of ZOSTAVAX (lot #: J007857, expiration date 28-SEP-2014) on the left side of upper arm. On an unspecified date, there was a rash (herpes zoster) on arm from shoulder to elbow with 42 days of vaccination, the number of lesions was too many to count, and it was like sunburnt or sun poisoning. The arm was also swollen. It lasted 2 weeks. On 18-MAR-2014, the patient was diagnosed as herpes zoster (HZ) (current episode). There was no recent exposure to chickenpox or HZ. The dermatomes/lesions was first started in pelvic area between vaginal anal area, also in area of legs where attached to hip (started on 17-MAR-2014, diagnosed on 18-MAR-2014). Then went down under thigh area, on the left side, more prominent on left side. Also broke out on from arms (mainly left side). Then mouth, back of neck along hairline, moved to whole head area, severe pain in left thigh after lesion cleared, felt like they were still there. Severe headache from head lesion. The patient saw pain management doctor to get injection into painful area, to get nerve calmed down. The numbers of lesions was "too many to count". The duration of HZ was reported as "2.5 months". It broke out an place, when these lesions started to clear others would come. The pain scale was over 10. The left thigh nerve felt like and still had lesions but didn't. It was active in nerve. The specimen collected for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis was not performed. No other diagnosis tests performed. The patient was trouble in walking, combing and washing hair. The patient continued stay in home for 2 to 3 weeks with no clothes except for doctor appointment. The event was recovering and not recovered (at the tail of end of it). The events were hopefully recovered at the end of June. The pharmacist considered the event to be disability and medically significant. Additional information has been requested.