<p>My dilemma: I need the hepatitis A & B vaccines (for travel). It is possible, though, that I have sometime in the past had one or both of these vaccines. It would have been about 15 years ago, when I was working in a residential school setting. People working there now are required to have these vaccines but I honestly can’t remember whether I had the vaccines or not. So my choices now are to get blood tests that would detect whether I have immunity or just to get the vaccines again. Cost is not a determinative factor–it would be cheaper to get the blood tests if it turns out that I am immune, but more expensive if it turns out that I am not (because then I’d have to pay for both the blood tests and the vaccines). </p>
<p>I am leaning towards just getting the vaccines (possibly again). Does anyone think this is a terrible idea?</p>
<p>You are so lucky having this choice in your scenario… My son was in the same situation except it was the possibility of chemotherapy wiping out the vaccines that was the issue. He had titres, (sp) checked to see what level of effectiveness he with the vaccines because they did not want him to have to start from scratch and retake the whole batch. But he did have rather sensitive health issues that you do not have.</p>
<p>If cost is not a determinative factor, why don’t you just test for the vaccines? What reason do you have that you don’t want to test for them and would rather just take them possibly again?</p>
<p>Cpt, I do appreciate that I am lucky not to have other medical issues influencing the decision. Really the reason for just taking them again is avoiding the hassle of taking the tests and finding out that no, I didn’t ever have these vaccines before, and then having to get the vaccines anyway. I would also have straightforward documentation that I have had the vaccines (if I ever needed to prove that).</p>
<p>some strains of hepatitis (C ?) can prevent you from purchasing life insurance which is a good indication for increase risk for premature death.
Get the vaccine even if you think that you have already been immunized.
This week I got the Zoosterzine (shingles-chickenpox) vaccine even though I’ve had chickenpox as a child and shingles in my 40’s-shingles really hurt; Hepatitis will really make you sick.</p>
<p>I would get the Hep B surface antibody test to see if you have immunity. You probably were vaccinated for that one. I seriously doubt you were vaccinated for Hep A. I don’t remember there being a vaccine that long ago, and it certainly wasn’t a standard even for health care workers. I would just get the Hep A vaccine now, and test for the Hep B immunity.</p>
<p>If I recall, the hep b vaccine is a series of 3 injections. Is there no place that has your vaccination records? It seems to me that the schools first started requiring this vaccination was in the mid 1990’s. I don’t think Hep A is usually required except for travel or maybe hospital work.</p>
<p>Hep A was recently added to the CDC’s recommended vaccination schedule for children. Children are way more at risk at potentially getting hep A over hep B.</p>
<p>It seems that the issue is getting the documentation if you are already vaccinated. If the result is that you were, you then have the problem of finding the records which you could be doing even without the titre testing. As a doctor what risks and issues there are in taking the vacs when you have already had them. If they are small, I would probably just revacc. Otherwise, I’d be already looking for the proof of vac. You aren’t going to be any better off in that pursuit even knowing that you had the vacs. You still have to go back to all of your doctors.</p>
<p>you can get a blood test to see if you have already had the shots in the past. I had to have it done because the hospital lost my shot records :(</p>