You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Unexpected outcome (positive or negative) including adverse drug reactions
CASE REPORT
Zoster vaccine-associated primary varicella infection in an immunocompetent host
  1. Kaoru Harada1,
  2. Henry Heaton2,
  3. Jason Chen3,
  4. Marietta Vazquez4,
  5. Jaimie Meyer5
  1. 1Department of Internal Medicine, Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
  2. 2Department of Dermatology, Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
  3. 3Department of Pathology & Cell Biology, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, New York, New York, USA
  4. 4Department of Pediatrics, Infectious Diseases, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
  5. 5Department of Medicine, Infectious Diseases, AIDS Program, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Jaimie Meyer, jaimie.meyer{at}yale.edu

Summary

A 64-year-old immunocompetent man developed a widespread pruritic and vesicular rash 2 weeks after receiving the zoster vaccine (Zostavax). He had fever, bandaemia with normal total white blood cell count and mild transaminitis. PCR testing of serum and skin was positive for varicella zoster virus (VZV), while serum VZV IgG was negative. The analysis of single nucleotide polymorphism by PCR and sequencing from the skin swab was consistent with the vaccine strain. The patient received 1 week of intravenous acyclovir and was discharged after all lesions had crusted. He continues to do well on follow-up with no significant complications.

  • immunological products and vaccines
  • vaccination/immunisation
  • skin
  • safety
  • unwanted effects / adverse reactions

https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2017-221166

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors KH conducted a literature review on the topic and drafted the paper. HH provided the images and revised the paper. JC sequenced the VZV genome and provided laboratory analysis and results. MV revised the paper. JM guided the drafting of the paper and supervised the process.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Obtained.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.