Third Zostavax death prompts new warnings
Authorities are emphasising the importance of screening and alerting vulnerable patients to the risk
A third patient has died in Australia after receiving the live attenuated varicella-zoster vaccine, the TGA has reported.
The patient, who was taking prednisolone and had recently been on checkpoint inhibitors for metastatic melanoma, died from disseminated vaccine strain varicella-zoster virus infection a few weeks after receiving a Zostavax shot.
An expert panel convened by the medicines regulator determined the man should never have been administered the vaccine because of his severe immunocompromise and the medication he was taking.
The panel said the clinical findings were “consistent with a causal association between Zostavax and fatal vaccine-related varicella-zoster virus infection”.
