Varicella vaccine-strain viral reactivation disease

What this is

Varicella vaccine-strain viral reactivation disease happens when the weakened chickenpox virus used in the vaccine becomes active again later in life and causes shingles.

Shingles is a painful, itchy rash that usually appears on one side of the body and follows the path of a nerve.

In some cases, the virus can affect parts of the body other than the skin. If that happens, doctors must show that the virus is actually causing disease in that organ, not just that a lab test is slightly abnormal.

To qualify, laboratory testing must confirm that the illness was caused by the vaccine strain of the chickenpox virus. Tests such as PCR can be used to identify the virus.

If testing shows that the illness was caused by the normal (wild-type) chickenpox virus or by another virus, it is not considered a vaccine-strain viral reactivation disease.

Current U.S. Vaccine Injury Table