The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says all people 55 and older should be getting the booster shots of a form of the Zika virus that was discovered only in April 2018.
The CDC estimates that between 1.2 million and 3.8 million people have come into contact with the nip virus during the Zika outbreak, which peaked in Brazil in 2015. Infection rates were low in the U.S. and the CDC says that Zika has not been detected in mosquitoes in the U.S. since 2015.
The CDC has stated previously that the virus poses a high risk to pregnant women and that pregnant women would not be recommended to get the booster shots.
According to the CDC, the extra dose will have little effect on someone that already has already been infected with the virus. The CDC is still recommending that pregnant women remain at least 21 weeks from Zika infection with at least two weeks off their birthdays.
The nip virus tends to go away after a couple weeks and can be transmitted to sexual partners. The CDC recommends that sexual partners have condoms for at least six months after infection to reduce the risk of transmission.
-Lee Abrams