Patients were asked to report all rashes that developed within 42 days of receiving the shingles vaccine. Patients who experienced injection site rashes developed them sooner—two to three days after receiving the vaccine, on average-- than patients who experienced rashes elsewhere on the body, which typically appeared more than two weeks after vaccine administration. DURATION Rashes that occurred at the injection site resolved, on average, within 5 days compared to 18 days for rashes that occurred elsewhere on the body, according to the Shingles Prevention Study Group. Rashes that occurred elsewhere likely reflected vaccine failure, rather than a side effect of vaccination. In all but a few patients, laboratory tests confirmed that the cause of the rashes was, in fact, shingles, but not the strain of the virus that was used in the vaccine.