Joe Martinelli said he's fully aware that the pain from shingles can send one through the roof.

He witnessed the impact on his wife, Tressa, who suffered from a shingles outbreak for a month. He said another person he knew almost was bedridden with it.

So two weeks ago, the 80-year-old Brentwood man received a shot of Zostavax -- a vaccine for the herpes zoster virus responsible for shingles. He said Mrs. Martinelli, 77, soon will be vaccinated.

"I'll tell you what, in reading about it, that pain can stay with you forever and can incapacitate you," Mr. Martinelli said. "I'm getting older, and I don't need that."

Agreeing with Mr. Martinelli, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended yesterday that all adults 60 and older be vaccinated to help prevent the debilitating pain and side effects of shingles.

The CDC said a single dose of Zostavax can reduce an outbreak of shingles by 50 percent for all people 60 and older and 64 percent for those 60 to 69.

The odds of getting shingles are high.

The CDC said about 95 percent of all people are infected by the varicella zoster virus, or VZV, in their lifetime, which causes the common childhood disease chicken pox.

But after the childhood episode passes, the virus goes dormant within the nerves and can reactivate later in life to cause shingles. It creates clusters of blisters, which typically develop along the line of a nerve and cause severe pain that can last weeks, months or even years.

The CDC said a million cases of shingles occur in the nation each year. The risk of contracting shingles increases with age beginning at 50 with the highest incidence rate among the elderly. Half of all people living to age 85 have had or will get shingles.

The CDC said 95 percent of adults in the nation are at risk with about one-third likely to suffer the effects of the virus. A third of those who get shingles will develop serious complications, which Kathy Williams, the clinic supervisor for the Center for Healthy Aging at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, said can include pneumonia, hearing and vision problems, and chronic pain.

Ms. Williams said the vaccine can be expensive, so she recommended finding out first whether the vaccine is covered by medical insurance.

"Actually it's frightening," she said of the virus. But of the people she's familiar with who have gotten the vaccine, not one has suffered from an outbreak.

If one does suffer an outbreak, appropriate and immediate treatment of herpes zoster can control acute symptoms and reduce the risk of long-term complications. Anti-viral medication, including Zovirax, Valtrex and Famvir, should be taken within 72 hours of onset to reduce symptoms, Ms. Williams said.

For more information, visit the CDC Web site at www.cdc.gov/vaccines.

Common side effects of the vaccine are redness, pain and tenderness, swelling at the site of injection, itching and headache. But Mr. Martinelli said he experienced no such problems after receiving the vaccine.