Can a Flu shot lead to Shingles?

26yo male, never had any illness other than the odd cold. Flu shot Tuesday, back pain Thursday, a rash that looked like bug bites Friday. Now it's Monday and I have a rash all down the left side if my torso.. scoured my house for bed bugs, freaked out that I was having a reaction to a filler in new generic psych med. Aaand although I feel awful right now, I'm actually kind of relieved it's shingles; no one wants bed bugs. Thanks to this site's contributors! And I'm very sorry for the people who have this much much worse...

Last year my 84 year old mother got a flu shot at the local pharmacy. The pharmacist gave her the shot way up high on top of her shoulder instead of in her arm, and she said it was very painful. 48 hours later she developed shingles. This year my boss got a shot of cortisone in her left hand and a couple days later she developed shingles on her left hand and in her left eye.

Well, Well, Well...my husband had flu shot and developed shingles four days later... normally VERY healthy. We're health freaks! I'm a retired nurse and have had Physiology and Microbiology and all kinds of stuff, and believe me, it's very possible. The comments about the immune system being, basically, busy making antibodies to fight the flu, would be the reason. It's preoccupied, and the shingles slips by unnoticed. Only a theory, but I'll most likely NEVER have another one!

On 10/22 I got the flu shot and had the normal upper arm soreness. Three days later I got severe back pain that worsened over the weekend and had developed further into a band of skin from my lower back to my upper abdomen that was numb and sensitive. I returned to the doctor. I thought it might be shingles but he thought it was a pinched nerve since there wasn't the telltale rash. A day later the rash developed and I returned to the doctor on 10/29 who confirmed it was in fact shingles. I blame this on the flu shot so I completed a VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) online.

I got the flu shot last Thursday. That night and the next day the arm and should where I got the shot was sore and I felt a little woozy, which happened to me last time I got the flu shot too. Then on Saturday I started having strange back pain and a headache that worsened on Sunday in addition to contined fatigue and general malaise through Monday and Tuesday. Small bumps started showing up on my back Monday, and started turning red on Tuesday. I thought maybe I was having an allergic reaction to the flu shot so I called the clinic. Based on the symptoms I described, t hey told me they thought I had shingles, but that it had nothing to do with the flu shot, so I would need to go see my family doctor for confirmation and medication, both of which I got on Wednesday. 36 hours after staring the medication, it has actually only gotten worse. I'm only 30 and, while I have some stress in my life, I've lived through much worse and not gotten shingles, so it seems likely to me that the flu shot had some role in this.

After experiencing shingles following my flu shot I was wondering if there was any coincidence it could be from the flu shot. Now after reading all these testimonies, I believe it is. I got the shingles vaccine in 2009 and have had flu shots once a year since and never developed shingles. Oct. 7th, 2014 I got the flu shot at my family dr. office in my right arm. I developed a large red spot that lasted over a week. In the meantime, on October 13th I had what I thought were bug bites because were red and itched. On the 14th a little pain was surrounding those spots. I went to see my family dr. and she said could be shingles and prescribed an anti viral med for 7 days (3 times a day). On the eve of the 14th I had pain around right side of my waist (spots were on my belly) and pain on right side of my back. I could not sleep because of the discomfort from pain. On the 15th I got a few small spots in the same area and on th 16th a few more. Fortunately, with the med the pain was subsiding daily as were the spots. I did have to put a tissue between my skin and my pants to keep the discomfort at bay. Today the 22nd I am almost cured of the shingles and the pain. Glad I had had the shingles vaccine though and went to the dr. immediately.

I received a flu shot on Jan. 5, 2014 and 10 days later I developed shingles. It started out as a really deep pain in my rib (I thought I had bruised it). 2 days after the pain started, the rash popped up exactly where the pain had been on my rib...then it spread to my side and back. I didn't develop the huge blisters or the bad itching...my shingles came in the form of a rash and unbearable pain that I can't even begin to describe. I went to the doctor and she did confirm that I have shingles. She put me on meds and suggested that I use capsaicin cream (which felt like liquid fire on my skin). I do not think the flu shot 'gave' me shingles, but I do think that it reactivated the virus in my body...which resulted in me developing them. I am under 40 years old and this is the second time that I've had them, too. If you also developed them after getting the flu vaccine, I would suggest that you report it to VAERS. I just submitted a form to them. Perhaps they'll take notice to the connection between the flu shot and people developing shingles. http://vaers.hhs.gov/index