People aged 60 or older should be vaccinated with Zostavax, which prevents shingles, a painful disorder related to chickenpox, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended on Thursday. The new recommendation was published in the May 15 online edition of the Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report.

This new advice follows the temporary one, given in 2006, after the Zostavax vaccine was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The release of these guidelines may determine health insurance companies to begin covering the cost of the vaccine. It is also an alarm signal for doctors to start vaccinate old people more intensely than before.

According to a statement made by Dr.William Schaffner, chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine, getting vaccinated is very important.

"There are about 1 million cases of shingles that occur each year in the United States. Half of these occur in people aged 60 and older,” he said, as cited by the Washington Post.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the vaccine decreased the risk of developing shingles by about 50% in people aged 60 and older. For people aged 60 to 69, it dwindles by 64 percent the chances of being affected with this disease, the organization said.

There is no cure for shingles, also known as herpes zoster. After a person has had chicken pox, the virus remains delitescent in the body, and can later reactivate as shingles.