Hepatitis A and B Immunizations
VNA of Southeast Michigan offers on-site immunization clinics for your school, business or community organization. To schedule a clinic:

Hepatitis A is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus found in the stool of an infected person. It is usually spread by close personal contact or by eating food or drinking water that has been contaminated. This condition affects the liver and can cause mild flu-like illness, jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes) and sever stomach pains and diarrhea. Symptoms usually lasts for less than two months, however, symptoms may continue on and off for up to 6 months. Although rare, hepatitis A can be fatal.

Who should receive the Hepatitis A vaccine? Individuals at risk of contracting Hepatitis A would benefit from being immunized. An individual is considered at risk if he/she lives with an infected person, has sexual contact with an infected person, is an international traveler, lives on an American Indian reservation or in an Alaskan native village, is a resident of a community experiencing an outbreak, works at a day-care facility, has chronic liver disease, Hepatitis C, or HIV/AIDS, is an intravenous drug user, or is a sexually active homosexual male.

Hepatitis B is a serious disease caused by a virus that enters the body through contact with blood and bodily fluids of an infected person. The Hepatitis B virus can cause short-term (acute) illness that leads to loss of appetite, diarrhea and vomiting, tiredness, jaundice (yellow skin or eyes), pain in muscles, joints and stomach. It can also cause long-term (chronic) illness that leads to liver damage (cirrhosis), liver cancer and death. Sometimes an individual with Hepatitis B infection may have no symptoms at all.

Who should receive the Hepatitis B vaccine? Hepatitis B can affect anyone. An individual's risk is higher if he/she lives with an infected person, has sexual contact with an infected person, is an injection drug user, is a sexually active homosexual male, has sexual contact with more than one partner, has a job that involves contact with human blood, has hemophilia, travels to areas where Hepatitis B is common or if his/her parents were born in southeast Asia, Africa, the Amazon Basin in South America, the Pacific Islands or the Middle East.