a and b shots question

[working dog]

i just got a and b shots......thought i would have to get the three shots over a few months...last time i had the first a and b shots was three years ago ...never followed up on the other shots.....  so i thought i would start all over again..while i was getting the a and b shots i mentioned that i had the first shots three years ago...the nurse said that i would most likely only need one more shot..she wasn't sure though...anybody know if my shots 3 years ago still count as the first shots...thanks....billy

[GoofyDad]

poke a hole in one of the fingers and you've got trouble.  

Trouble??  I'd call that getting some strange, LOL!!  

[meakea]

OOPS...I meant to say:  I had Hep B series shots in about 1990....  Sorry about that...I don't want to confuse anyone into thinking there are shots for Hep C immunity!  Just a stupid typo.

[meakea]

The same thing happened to me as it did to Bill1954.  I had Hep C series shots in about 1990 and when I was tested for all of the Heps in 2008, I was not found to have immunity to Hep B.  I went through the A&B series again in 2008 and at my general physical a few weeks ago I asked the doc to test me for immunity to both.  I have immunity to A but not to B.  

I guess the moral of the story is to get checked for immunity even after taking the shots if you want to know for sure.  False security is not a good thing.

[Trish77]

"If I'd known protective sex would do the trick, I would have just done that instead! Do you need a partner for it to be effective? "

From what I understand, a partner actually reduces the effectiveness of the rubber gloves.  Mind you, poke a hole in one of the fingers and you've got trouble.  So be careful out there.

[GoofyDad]

Bill, when I turned up neg after twinrix, my hepatologist, in the same group I think, was going to have me do a second double dose course. I wasn't too keen on that so we settled on trying an extra single dose. That did the trick. But TF was definitely wanting the double whammy.

If I'd known protective sex would do the trick, I would have just done that instead! Do you need a partner for it to be effective?

[Bill1954]

I had the full Twinrix (both A and B) vaccines twice, and never developed protective antibodies for B. I spoke with my hepatologist about this recently, and she said a small percentage of patients will never develop immunity. My course of action is lifestyle avoidance, i.e. protected sex, etc. If I am to travel to countries where HBV is endemic, I can ask for HBV immunoglobin; other than that, I need to play safe :o).

Bill

[jelise]

I don't know about the A, but I had the same dilemma with the B shots.  I had the first 2 like 6 years ago (it's 3 for B and 2 for A right?) and never had the 3rd.  The nurse said I could just do the last one then (July).  I also did the first A shot at that time and then started tx in August. Now I am due for the second A shot and am wondering if it will even work the way it is supposed to since I am right in the middle of 48 weeks of tx....she couldn't answer that :P

I'm with you desrt, I just figure I'll just take the shots and then after all this is over get my antibodies checked to make sure they worked.

[desrt]

The only way to know for sure would be to check your antibodies after the second set of shots. Sometimes even the full set doesn't produce the desired results. The fact that your nurse is unsure would cause me to err on the side of safety.