Natacha Jacques v. HHS - Hepatitis B, small fiber neuropathy (2025)

Natacha Jacques, a 41-year-old nursing assistant, received the first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine on August 8, 2016, after a patient's urine splashed into her eye. She later received a second dose on September 8, 2016.

In early 2018, about 18 months after her first vaccination, she reported numbness in her elbow and was diagnosed with small fiber neuropathy by a neurologist in June 2018. Her petition, filed on August 2, 2019, initially alleged 16 injuries caused by the hepatitis B vaccines, including small fiber neuropathy and Sjögren's syndrome.

Over the course of the litigation, the case focused on whether the hepatitis B vaccines caused Sjögren's syndrome, with petitioner's expert opining in favor and respondent's expert opining against. After a tentative finding that petitioner had not established she suffered from Sjögren's syndrome, Ms.

Jacques sought to amend her petition to add a claim that the hepatitis B vaccines caused her small fiber neuropathy. The court denied this request, finding that she had a full and fair opportunity to raise this claim earlier in the litigation, having been diagnosed with small fiber neuropathy from the beginning and having had multiple opportunities to pursue it.

The court also denied her claim for Sjögren's syndrome, finding that the evidence did not preponderate in her favor, as no treating doctor had diagnosed her with the condition and she had not tested positive for common Sjögren's antibodies. Consequently, Ms.

Jacques was denied entitlement to compensation.