Many insurance plans, including Medicare Part D, cover the cost of the vaccine. You pharmacist can help you determine the amount of coverage your prescription benefit provides.
The FDA recommendation, expanding on its 2006 approval, was based on a comprehensive study showing patients in this age group had a 70 percent reduced chance of developing the painful nerve disease after receiving a single dose of the shingles vaccine Zostavax. The vaccine helps protect against flare-ups of the varicella-zoster virus, which typically causes chickenpox when patients are first exposed to it, but can cause shingles later in life, leaving some victims bed-ridden with pain from the nerve disease for weeks, months or even years.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shingles strikes 1 million adult Americans annually - one-third of the population - over the course of a lifetime.
