Can the Shingles Vaccine Cause Tinnitus? What Research Shows – Healthline

Shingles is an infection that manifests as a painful rash. It’s caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox, called the varicella-zoster virus.

Even after you’ve recovered from chickenpox, the varicella-zoster virus stays dormant (inactive) in your nervous system. When it reactivates, usually decades later, it causes shingles.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the shingles vaccine, Shingrix, for people ages 50 and over, as well as for people ages 19 and over who have a weakened immune system.

But some people are reluctant to get vaccinated, particularly because of claims that the vaccine can cause ringing in the ears, known medically as tinnitus.

Keep reading to learn more about an alleged link between the shingles vaccine and tinnitus, as well as other side effects it may have.

Shingrix is a new shingles vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2017. It’s different from the previously recommended vaccine, Zostavax, which has been discontinued in the United States since 2020.

Some people who received Zostavax claimed to have experienced severe side effects, including hearing loss and tinnitus. This resulted in lawsuits filed against its manufacturer, Merck. These lawsuits are still pending.

Unlike Zostavax, Shingrix doesn’t contain a live virus. Because of that, this vaccine is considered to be much safer. There is no scientific evidence that Shingrix can cause either hearing loss or tinnitus.

Even before Zostavax was discontinued, CDC began recommending Shingrix over Zostavax for the following reasons:

• Shingrix provides stronger protection than Zostavax.
• Shingrix isn’t a live vaccine, so it can’t cause the virus to reactivate.
• Unlike Zostavax, Shingrix is safe for immunocompromised people to use.
• Shingrix provides a more durable immunity against shingles compared to Zostavax, according to a 2022 study.

But what if you already got Zostavax? Should you worry about tinnitus if you got the Zostavax vaccine before it was discontinued?

As with Shingrix, there is no scientific evidence that Zostavax could cause either hearing loss or tinnitus. However, because Zostavax was a live vaccine, it carried a very small chance of virus reactivation that could cause a rash or shingles.

If you were …….

Source: https://www.healthline.com/health/can-shingles-vaccine-cause-tinnitus