(no subject)

[noahgibbs]

I get tested for a variety of things regularly, on principle. On the list is Hepatitis (note: please don't read too much into my proclivities on this one - they test for it, so I go get tested).

However, even at a cheap testing location, it looks like long-term I'll be much better served by just going and getting the vaccine for it - I don't know what the vaccine costs, but the testing gets expensive at once a year or once per six months. Besides, hey, being immune has several additional advantages in terms of giving status. It just seems like a good idea.

I know there are Hepatitis A & B vaccines out there, recommended for health professionals and/or travellers. Anybody know a good location to go get vaccinated? This seems like it would be of fairly broad interest in several of my communities...

Comments

[fyfer.livejournal.com]

Most people younger than us get the Hep B vaccine in high school now - I think it's on the standard list that many colleges require. It was just becoming commonly available when I started college.

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Oddly, I've had two of the three injections for Hep B - I was on the Palm Emergency Response Team (basically employees trained in first aid), but I quit the company before the six months had elapsed for the third injection.

[fyfer.livejournal.com]

You're probably immune, then. I missed my last shot and while the doctor keeps reminding me to go get it, he tells me that I'm almost certainly immune. It won't hurt to get the final shot, but you won't need to get the first shots again. (Don't trust me on this.)

[yanijc.livejournal.com]

Longer intervals between the shots is preferable to shorter, but if you are immune, you'd test positive when you get tested.

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

Various web pages agree that I shouldn't need to get the first shots again. However, apparently I'm not coming up positive for Hepatitis (at least, Planned Parenthood didn't tell me so), so I'm guessing I need that third shot.

[bootkitten.livejournal.com]

Actually, when that happened to me, and I missed my 3rd shot, they had me do the entire series over again. So am not sure what they would make you do. Would depend on if you had records of your shots, and then the time frame in which you had the last one. If the last one is still w/i the proper frame.

[blacksheep-lj.livejournal.com]

I've had vaccinations for both. One because of my health worker status, and one because I was rowing on the Charles River one summer when they announced that raw sewage had been draining into the river for several weeks....ugh. But let's see.....the bloodborne variety I got vaccinated for through student health services.

[fyfer.livejournal.com]

Ah, the good old Charles River storm sewers. People who fell in while sailing were generally told to get tetanus shots too.

[terpsichoros.livejournal.com]

Though note that there is not yet a vaccine for Hepatitis C, so you'll continue to need to get tested for that.

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

Yup. Was just reading up on that.

[zorblive.livejournal.com]

I got travel vaccinations at the county health department. Mind you, it wasn't in time for them to actually go into effect, but maybe for the next trip...

[zhaneel69.livejournal.com]

I got Hep B vaccinated in High School following exposure to a carrier (I ate dinner at his house & stayed the night with nothing happening, which was enough to disqualify me for blood giving for 1.5 years). This was with my family doctor in Livermore under my father's health insurance.

I got Hep A vaccinated in College when planning on traveling to New Zealand. This was at the student health center.

Not sure where to go if you aren't under a current health plan...

Zhaneel

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

While I've got health insurance at work (not sure for how much longer), I don't think insurance covers "I'd like to get immunized, just because." Though I guess I could claim I knew a carrier socially or was planning travel. That'd work.

[zhaneel69.livejournal.com]

Really? Have you checked? Because most insurances I've had experience prefer "Immunized just because" over "need long treatment later"

Zhaneel

[aberrantvirtue.livejournal.com]

That's been my experience too. Then again, my insurance likes me to do lots of lab work, over talking to a professional about anything, so of course it prefers immunization. ;)

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

I've got the paperwork to get vaccinated for Hep A and Hep B. I asked my gyn about it, and she originally didn't think I needed it. I mention that while unbarriered rimming isn't something I do a lot of, it does sometimes happen, and I wondered what the downsides to the vaccine was. With that in mind, she wrote me the scrip...I'll be going to Kaiser to get it filled, but they only do injections during my work day, so I haven't made it over there just yet.

Side note: I know the lab hours because I got the varicella vaccine. I'm dating people with kids, have friends with kids, and never got chicken pox (and am old enough not to have gotten the vaccine). Just another one to think about, fwiw.

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

I've actually had chicken pox multiple times, so I certainly *hope* I've got antibodies :-)

But yeah, that's a good reminder.

[warsop.livejournal.com]

Your county health department will handle your immunizations, and will probably be rather cheap.

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

I like that thought, but Googling for "Alameda county health department" doesn't seem to be getting me any useful results if I'm looking for an actual, physical clinic.

[warsop.livejournal.com]

I did the same Google search and hit the Alameda County Community Health Centers immunization sites (that's a PDF).

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[zml.livejournal.com]

I was vaccinated for Hep B during college. I disagree with earlier poster that it will show up in testing. Shortly after my last Hep B shot, I gave blood. At the time they didn't ask about the Hep B vaccine, and I got an annoying letter in the mail a month later explaining that they had thrown out my blood because I tested positive for Hep B. Fine. Skip ahead to the next time I gave blood about 2 years later, at which point they asked fairly clearly if I had been vaccinated within the last 6 months (I think. It's some period of time, and I've been asked ever since then).

Anyways, my point is that I believe it may show up in testing, but they may also be able to differentiate between vaccinated/immune and actually positive. I've been able to give blood since then and never had it rejected.

[zhaneel69.livejournal.com]

If referring to me:

I was rejected for giving blood BEFORE vaccination because of possible exposure. I wasn't rejected for giving blood after, and told them that I had been vaccinated.

Dunno about it showing up as "positive" or not, because my test results don't show positive, but they also know I'm vaccinated.

Zhaneel

[toxgunn.livejournal.com]

I'm a fan of the vaccination.

FWIW, some folks don't respond well to the series, and it doesn't "take". And sometimes the vaccinations wear off - I had to have a bunch of my childhood immunizations redone before going walkabout in 2002 because the titers were borderline.

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

Interesting. My understanding was that at least with Hepatitis A, it was entirely permanent, and that it was permanent at least in the vast majority of cases for Hep B.

I know there are some other things, like tetanus, that are expected to expire in some number of years. Maybe ten for tetanus? I forget.

Shot in the ass?

[radven.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine when I was in the 4th grade (living in Indonesia) got Hepatitis, and I remember they gave me a real nasty shot in the ass to make sure I didn't catch it too.

Many years later in college I had my blood reected with a positive Hepatitis test. Checking with a doctor, he said that was from that old shot, and two years later the Red Cross let me give blood again with no complaint.

So - am I vaccinated? Would any harm come from getting vaccinated again? I would like to find a cheap and simple way to get this risk removed from my world... Hep A and B both.

Re: Shot in the ass?

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

Dunno. The current shots for HepA and HepB are in the upper arm, but I don't know what vaccine you might have received there. Also, the current vaccines require a series of two shots (for HepA) or three shots (for HepB) to be permanent.

Re: Shot in the ass?

[toxgunn.livejournal.com]

Or a series of three shots that are a combination - twinrix?

Re: Shot in the ass?

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

Yup.

[coyotegrrrl.livejournal.com]

This one I know - Hep A and B are supposed to be lifetime, once you're done with the series. There are some things that they suspect have waning immunity that we don't have boosters for - measles and pertussis (whooping cough) I think are the two.

[toxgunn.livejournal.com]

Well, my understanding is that some folks don't respond to the Hep vacs the first time around, and that it can take a second series to get an immune response. I don't know what real numbers are, and am off to go grab food instead of looking them up since I haven't eaten today...;)

[toxgunn.livejournal.com]

Oh, the childhood ones that wore off were MMR or DPT, don't recall which. But between those, rabies, hep, meningitis, jap encephalitis, etc., in prep for my trip I spent 6 weeks getting one in each arm every 3-4 days. My shot record is comedy..;)

Oh. and I have no idea how long it is good for but when you have coverage, the preexposure vacs for rabies were handy - least uncomfortable of all of them (tiny volume subdermal in underside of arm), and they're recombinant rather than live kill or blood-deried immune factor (which is what you get postexposure if you aren't vaccinated).

[coyotegrrrl.livejournal.com]

Heh. You think I'd know this, considering it's part of what of studying. Call your local health dept - they should be able to refer you to someplace locally. Or ask your physician. I got Hep B done at my doctor's office.

[coyotegrrrl.livejournal.com]

Er der. Forgot to mention - you don't get Hep A sexually, except through fecal-oral contact, so it's really only an issue if you do a lot of anal. Which you might. Hep C is really only a problem for needle sharing, which is why I got tested for it post-tattoo.

I'll shut up now. :-) But if you want further info, this is part of my coursework right now, so ask.

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I don't do much of anything that is a series risk for Hepatitis, and HepB is the only one I'm even vaguely likely to need to worry about, but I figure if I'm getting vaccinated, might as well get both A and B (no vaccine for C).

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

My local health department basically said that they recommend I go ask a doctor unless I qualify as low-income. So I'm gonna do that, or get it at PP.

[terpsichoros.livejournal.com]

Kaiser is pretty good about immunizations - if you know enough to ask for something that's not in short supply (flu), you'll probably get it, and frequently it's free. Other health plans not so much. The doctors don't know when your insurance expires, unless you tell them, so they'll operate under the assumption that you'll be on their plan for a while.

Alameda County Health Department has to cover a lot of low-income clients,so it makes sense that they'd suggest you go somewhere else.