Can a Flu shot lead to Shingles?

Amazing, isn't it? I'm sure we're going to see more and more posts. It's great when our women actually tell us when they've developed shingles after having a flu vaccine. If the CDC doesn't want to deal with it, at least we can make women aware of what we're seeing in our community.

I'm so sorry to hear you got shingles after having your flu vaccine. It's amazing how many people have this as a side effect, yet no one is willing to say it's a "possible" side effect.
Are you feeling better now?

Did your doctor figure out it was a reaction from the flu vaccine or, did you figure this out yourself? You're a good patient advocate for coming and posting to this thread. We will keep after the CDC as I'm sure we're about to see a lot of women who will be posting about their own experience or a family member who's developed shingles after the vaccine. Take care and let us know if there's anything we can do for you and thanks again for posting. The more women who post, the more we'll be able to get someones attention and get this listed as one of the possible side effects. Knowledge is power and we deserve to know all the effects to any drug.

Best in health,
Michelle

received my first flu shot on Sept 17th, 2009. had a sore arm the first day, then the soreness spread to my back. I developed a blistery rash on the back of my thigh that looks like shingles. I have had this same blistery rash in the exact same place (there is a scar now) once in the past and was told it could be shingles by my doctor.
Anna D

I got a flu shot and 5 hours late I started feeling a shooting pain on my left side, the side I got the flu shot on. Shooting pain so bad that night I could not sleep. Sure enough two days later I was diagnosed with shingles.

I am another who got shingles after getting a flu shot. It was my first flu shot, a mandatory immunization from my employer. Within days my underarm was tingling and the first blister appeared within 10 days. Now I have several blisters down the nerve line of the arm. I am also a healthy 40 year old, who thought my feeling extra tired this last week was just related to a busy life :P
I hope you can gather documentation so that the CDC will recognize shingles as a possible adverse outcome to the flu shot.

I recently broke out with two very large and painful fever blisters (upper and also lower lip). I did not have a flu vaccine because I have heard too many things about them that cause me concern. I feel certain mine were caused by emotional upset at my workplace. However, I wanted to share what worked. I took Valtrex; as far as I could tell it did nothing. However, bleach will kill the virus. I used diluted Clorox bleach on a cotton swab and it healed them up within 2 days. Also pure peppermint oil topically applied helped. I am 55, female, had chickenpox as a child, but have absoultely no history of ever having fever blisters or shingles. I also took an anti-viral herbal combination from Nature's Sunshine that seemed to help. The Valtrex gave me a severe headache. I am thankful to have found this website for I had heard of people saying autism was linked to vaccines, but never shingles. This is great information. The way I came up with using bleach was that I had seen an exhibit years ago at the Walter Reed Hospital museum in Bethesda, MD and in the exhibit they displayed a bottle of Clorox bleach with a card that said: Bleach will kill the AIDS virus. I thought: if bleach will kill the AIDS virus, then it will kill the herpes virus.

My mother had a flu shot this winter. She had a bout of cancer last year, with chemo and raditation treatments ending last November (2007). This year her doctors said she needed to get a flu and pneumonia shot because of her compromised immune system. Around the middle of December, she began to have trouble with pain in her back. She went to her Chiropractor for an adjustment. The adjustmenst caused enough pain to cause her to cry out, not a usual occurence for her during an adjustment. I am not sure what other specific symptoms she suffered, she was very tired, and in alot of pain. Finally, her chiro. said she needed to see her doctor. He diagnosed her with shingles. This was in January. She is still struggling with pain, her blisters are just about gone. But lots of pain still. I truly can't believe how many people seem to be suffering from this!

Any suggestions for dealing with the pain? She is taking motrin in large doses every 4 hours, and I believe they prescribed Lyrica.

Thank you all for submitting your info to this board, it is so helpful.

Jennifer