Do you get shingles from a flu shot?

I too suspect a link between the 2009 flu shot and my current bout of shingles ... anyone else out there?

I too have shingles 10 days after the flu shot. It started with pain in my underarm and elbow and then chills and achy feeling 3 days later, next my spine started tingling and it moved down to a horrible pain in my hip and leg. They were very painful for a week and then the blisters started all over the hip, leg, and groin area and the pain has subsided except for the burning of the sores. The doctor says it is shingles. I am on an anti-viral med, advil, cream, and pain pill to sleep for a few nights. I have had a broken wrist and it was nothing like this. I will never take a flu shot again. Last time was 5 years ago and my arm was paralyzed for about a week so I was scared, but I got worried and folks at work told me they probably just hit a nerve. Yes they really hit one this time. Flu shots are dangerous and there is no telling the side effects people have and don't even know the flu shot caused them. And like other folks I had a complete physical two months ago and everything was great!

Well, not that misery likes company...but I too had the exact scenario happen. Got my flu shot on 9/21/09 and the following week (9 days later) I noticed a stiff neck on the same side as the shot, pain in and around the ear, extreme fatigue and low grade fever. Went to the doctor who examined me and noticed a "blister" on the top of my ear (needless to say: I didn't have an ear infection) and who promptly diagnosed shingles. My neck, ear, scalp and cheek are all affected at this point, along with severe pain and itching (this is one of the worst illnesses I have EVER experienced) I am an otherwise healthy 50 + female and have no immune deficiencies-in fact had my annual physical this month and all my bloodwork, etc was normal. I plan on submitting a MedWatch form. Although I am well aware that the flu virus and herpes zoster virus are totally different( I am an RN)-I would agree with a previous post that hypothesized that the vaccine may lower the immune system and make it particularly vulnerable to shingles (zoster). Only by submitting this kind of information to the CDC will there be any future chance for the public to be made aware of these potential side effects. Thus, a true informed decision can then be made as to whether or not one should have the flu shot.
Please let me know if anyone else has had a similar experience.
PS Any helpful hints on how to manage the symptoms would be welcome as well! :-(

I also got shingles a week after the flu shot (2009). Of course they are different viruses but I am wondering if while my body was building the antibodies from the flu shot that that weakened my immune system enough to cause the shingles flare-up?

I got a flu shot about 7 days back and my arm in which I took flu shot was sore and 5th day I notices some red spots on my chest and the back (on same side in which I took flu shot). I visited Dr's office and she says its "Shingles". After reading through the above posts, there seems to be some connection with Flu shot and Shingles.

I am on anti viral drug now and I hope it will arrest further growth.

Hey all, we alerted the Centers for Disease Control to this post and similar posts about the flu shot and shingles on Thanksgiving. One of their doctors, Carolyn Bridges, MD returned a statement in less than a week and here's what she had to say:

"Influenza vaccines contain either inactivated or killed virus or they contain a weakened form of influenza virus. Thus, they cannot cause shingles. Shingles is caused by the reactivation of the virus that causes chicken pox. Shingles is relatively common so it is possible that some cases of shingles may occur around the time of influenza vaccination, but that would be coincidental. There is no evidence that influenza vaccination leads to shingles. Influenza and shingles are caused by very different viruses."

For more information, visit

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/shingles/default.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

Hello anonymous, hope you had a good Thanksgiving. Wanted to let you know we received a response from the American Lung Association and here's what they had to say ...

"There is no evidence or link that I can find that would connect the influenza vaccine to an outbreak of shingles. I think this might be nothing more than bad timing. We hear from people who swear that they got the flu from the flu vaccine, even though this is not possible.

What usually happens is that they were just unfortunate enough to either be exposed before their immunity was obtained from the flu shot (it can take 2 weeks), or they simply contracted a strain of the flu that was not covered in the vaccine. This may be similar for those who come down with shingles after the flu vaccine. If this happened to me, it would make me wonder if the two were related. I would encourage these people to report this to the FDA’s Consumer Complaint Coordinators for the state they live in: http://www.fda.gov/opacom/backgrounders/complain.html. This is also a good time to talk about the Shingles vaccine. This vaccine is approved for people over age 60, and is shown to reduce the risk of shingles by 50% in this population: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/vis/downloads/vis-shingles.pdf. Although most of us gained immunity during childhood with chickenpox, the resistance may fade as we get older. Not everyone should have this vaccine, so it is important to talk to your physician about this."