Iam leaving to the Mayan Riviera in a week, is it too late to have the hepitits shots.?

Question

If it is too late is there anything I can do to prevent or just stay away from that.

Answer 1

Too late for Hepatitis B because it's a three dose shot given at bimonthly intervals, enough time for Hepatitis A since it's just 1 shot and far more likely you *could* get than Hepatitis B (unless you're planning on sleeping with a dozen strange people with no condom).

While you could get Hepatitis A, it's generally an asymptomatic disease in half of the cases and the other half the disease looks more drastic than what it really is. I had a classmate who got the virus (it's even possible I was infected by him but never got sick) and he was greenish-yellow and looked a litte sleepy all week but despite that he felt good enough to continue going to class like usual. His skin turned back to normal after about 2 weeks as if nothing had happened.

Once you are infected by Hepatitis A, you are immunized for life. There's less than 1% of probability that the disease kills the liver but if that happens there's nearly a 100% mortality rate.

Hepatitis A is transmitted by contaminated stool, not airborne, not by s*x.

Hepatitis B is transmitted by blood and s*x along with Hepatitis C. Hepatitis D is an incomplete virus and you need to have active Hepatitis B infection. In the really bad case this happens, it's far more likely you will suffer from chronic disease and liver failure. Hepattiis B vaccine protects you from Hepatitis B and D for life.

The chances that if you are infected by Hepatitis B the infection is only temporary and you body manages to stop it is over 70%. I know a doctor who was of the lucky group that got infected sometime when he was an intern by contaminated blood or something. He's now immunized against the disease for life, but man was he lucky! If you get Hepattiis C though, it's almost 100% probable the disease will be chronic and will destroy the liver. There is no cure for either B or C, just prevention.

There is a Hepatitis E virus but it's both rare (mostly only affects poor people in Asia since it's transmitted by stool) and it's only serious if you get it when you are pregnant.

The chances of getting Hepatitis A? Not very likely unless you pop up in a really poor area and eat unclean food. The chances of getting traveler's diahrrea? Far more probable. I sure got real sick when I went to Manzanillo once.

Chances are you'll have a nice trip.