TRICARE Covers Shingles Vaccination Published Jan. 28, 2008 By Brian P. Smith TriWest Healthcare Alliance WASHINGTON -- TRICARE now covers the shingles vaccine for beneficiaries based on the endorsement and recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC. TRICARE will cover a single dose of Zostavax -- the vaccine designed to prevent shingles -- for eligible beneficiaries age 60 and older. Shingles is a painful skin rash caused by the varicella-zoster virus, the same virus that causes chickenpox. According to the CDC, the shingles rash will usually appear on one side of the body or face and can last from two weeks to a month. Symptoms can also include fever, headache, chills and an upset stomach. The Food and Drug Administration, FDA estimates one out of five people will be affected by a form of shingles. The Zostavax vaccine contains a weakened version of the virus, letting your immune system learn to fight the virus without becoming infected. Only people who have had chickenpox -- or who have received the chickenpox vaccine -- can develop shingles later in life. You cannot catch shingles from someone else who has shingles. The CDC cautions that Zostavax is not intended to treat shingles or to treat any pain that develops after the rash is gone. TRICARE Management Activity reports that in a shingles prevention study done by the Veterans Administration Cooperative Trial and the University of California, San Diego, Zostavax was 51 percent effective in reducing the shingles virus and was more than 60 percent effective in reducing some of the associated symptoms. Those who developed shingles after vaccination reported less pain than those not vaccinated. For more information on TRICARE, visit their Web site at www.triwest.com.